


Moon Ice

by Silverbulletsdeath



Category: Monster High
Genre: Backstory, Broken Family, Elemental Magic, Exile, Gen, Mouth Sewn Shut, Pre Seriers, Prejudice, Tribe - Freeform, abandoned, abbey - Freeform, darker than monster high, humans are the enemy, mute character, siding with the enemy, slightly changed backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-01-11 16:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 118,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1175068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverbulletsdeath/pseuds/Silverbulletsdeath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abbey misses her family, she talks about how it was back in her village. But what if her family is broken and the closest people she has for family now are human?  </p>
<p>She wasn't always called Abbey, the human only called her that because he thought he was clever.  She never used to care about fashion, because she lived on the top of a mountain where humans attacked her people and all there was to wear was armor.  If everything had gone according to plan, she would have killed the human that is now her closest friend and become part of the tribe.  Instead she wears uncomfortable clothes in an effort to find herself, and she wears makeup to hide the scars.  </p>
<p>At Monster High, she never told her friends her family is now the humans she swore to kill. They don't know the horrible things she had to do after she failed to kill the human, and that for almost a year, her mouth was sewn shut because her lost tribe couldn't bring themselves to kill her.  </p>
<p>This is Abbey's story, the story detailing how she went from the runt of a yeti tribe to an exchange student at Monster High.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Trial

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: So Gana is Abbey. Obliviously I've taken liberties with the story, and this world is a little more monstrous than the monster high version. But I tried to keep as close to the facts as I could. Also, I will try to finish this without starting anything new. It's coming to the end, but I have such a small attention span.

Chapter One

The Trial

 

Gana smiled and held herself straight and strong as her uncle lifted her into the air.  A cheer that ripped through the war hall built on the mountain top.  The cheer signaled the beginning of the celebration.  The cheer only lasted a moment, but it echoed in the hall even as the musicians began to beat their drums.  In most cases, cheering was a waste of breath and would be frowned upon, but this was a special occasion.  Tomorrow was Gana’s fifteenth birthday.  In the morning she would be sent down the mountain to complete her final trial and become a warrior of the tribe.  The celebration commemorated and celebrated the fact she had lived long enough to become a part of the tribe.  As a yeti, Gana had trained her entire life for this coming of age trial.

Abbey smiled and threw her power over the cold and snow into the mix as her people threw her into the air, she couldn’t help but feel apprehension along with excitement at the prospect of her trial.  Tomorrow was a big day: her first day as a true warrior and yeti.  Even if she died during her trial, she would be demonstrating her resolve to support and be an integral part of her tribe as a warrior, and Gana was a good warrior.  She had adapted well what was taught.  She wasn’t a conventional warrior; perhaps since her small stature meant she was agile instead of powerful, but she had adopted and learned well from hunting, sparing, and training under her master.  Gana’s master was proud of Gana’s abilities.  The old warrior expressing that she believed Gana would pass her trail and retrieve the head of the enemy the small yeti kill with ease.

A small blizzard had begun to build in the war hall as Gana was set back on her own two feet.  Gana straightened her hair, as she recovered.  Her hair was uncommonly long; reaching a finger’s length past her shoulders, but the small yeti couldn’t help but admire it.  Her hair wasn’t just the normal white and gray color.  While the foundation of her hair was white, and she had only seen natural highlights and strands of colors she had only painted in the sky when the sun was rising from under the world in the early morning.  Gana’s mother said the small yeti’s hair looked like the snow on a perfect sunrise.  Still, to keep the length so long was silly and vain, a weakness that Gana shouldn’t indulge in.  Gana shrugged those thoughts aside and consoled herself regularly by noting that every yeti had some hobby or vanity that was seen as a weakness by the traditions of the tribe.

Gana created an ice pillar to lift her up to everyone else’s height so she could have a proper look around.  She easily found in the crowd her father signing and laughing with her master and other old warriors.  Her father caught her eyes and, beaming proudly, he headed her way.  As a path opened between them, Gana saw her father held an elongated, ceremonial knife in his hand.  It was old Bonebreaker.  Of course, Bonebreaker was the size of a sword to Gana, but it would serve her well when it came time to remove the head of the enemy she killed.  It was the knife both her parents had used to cut the head off of their enemy to present offering at the end of their trial and it had been past down to the first born of her bloodline for many generations. 

Gana felt herself tearing up.  Her older brother should have received this knife.  Gana should be gifted the knife of one of the males who wished to join with her in strengthening the numbers of their tribe.  But her brother was gone.  The enemy had killed him four years ago, cutting his life short before he even had a chance to take his trial.  The day her brother died so had most a generation.  That day he and other yetis close to their trial had been taken by an experienced warrior on a hunt to help them hone their skills as future warriors.  Instead they had been ambushed by the enemy and every one of them slaughtered. 

Gana received Bonebreaker from her father with a bow.  Bonebreaker felt right in her hands.  She would give this to her future husband when he came of age to face his trial, but for now Bonebreaker would serve her as she killed her first enemy and started her quest to avenge her fallen tribesmen.  Gana placed Bonebreaker in the sheath at her hip.  As tradition dictated, once handed the knife, Gana took on the responsibility of protecting and continuing the survival of her tribe.  Her people. 

The small yeti looked around the room.  Snow fell all around the giant ice cavern.  Some yetis lifted their faces to the sky, sharp blue features raised toward the icy ceiling as they paved their own power into building the storm. 

Gana jumped, her attention stolen from the storm as her fingers instinctively dug into the hand that had tried to remove Bonebreaker from her belt.  The small yeti turned to confront the thief and came chest to face with her oldest friend, Pyry.  Pyry was a true beauty.  The yeti had a rounded face and skin more white than blue. Even for a yeti she was tall, with rippling muscles, and almost fully developed figure.  The big yeti had a taste for the mischief that made her red eyes sparkle and look like she was always laughing.

Gana rolled her eyes when she looked up to see her friend pouting. 

“No,” Gana said reinforcing the command by hitting the side of one hand against the palm of her other while she tried to look disappointed at her antics.  Then Gana broke out into silent laughter as Pyry pretended to be broken hearted.  Really, Pyry had already given her knife to the yeti closest her age.  Gana had to wait two years before she could give her knife to the next one and Gana wasn’t sure how she felt about him.  There was a chance she would be waiting an extra year.  For one thing, that meant another male, with a more humorous personality came of age, and also waiting the extra year guaranteed Gana more time to spend in fighting the enemy and not wasting her best years birthing babies.  The tribe was no longer low on tribesmen.  No more than usual anyway.  While the death of so many had hurt their numbers, her tribe was used to the loss in this never ending war.  Couples, like her parents, had been expected to provide another child.  So while the tribe’s numbers for battle were low, there was a large group of children currently beginning their training. 

Pyry led Gana over to there dance floor.  Gana quickly gripping Pyry tightly so she wouldn’t get lost in the press of bodies.  Gana smiled and allowed the Pyry to kiss her on each cheek playfully as they twirled.  Pyry and her were expected to be battle sisters since they would be the youngest females of age and were good friends. Gana had no problem with their assumption.  Pyry was her friend and confidant.  Gana missed the nights she had spent curled next to the other yeti signing and sharing the cold after Pyry passed her trial and moved to sleep with the other warriors.  Gana loved Pyry as she loved the rest of her family.  Gana honestly felt proud that she would soon be joining with Pyry as a battle sister.  Pyry had a reputation as a fierce and honorable warrior with a cool head and a sharp mind for tactics. 

The beating of the drums slowly stopped, and a new song began with some sort of string instrument.  Gana smiled at Pyry, even as she grew impatient for the celebration to end and her trial to begin.  After she completed her trial and became a warrior, it wouldn’t be long until she would head out in the next hunting group to gather food and potentially sabotage any bases the enemies had begun to setup in her tribe’s territory.  The tribe had been looking forward to Gana coming of age.  A small yeti was considered a sign from the ancestors that some great change was on the horizon.  The blood in her veins ran cold excitement at the thought of her trial.  Finally she would prove her worth and her people would flourish.  Finally Gana would shed enemy blood.  Sure, Gana had killed animals before, mountain lions and wild boars that wandered too high up the mountain, but this trial would be a true test of her ability as a warrior against an enemy with as much wits and guile as her people.

Gana smiled and broke away from her dance with Pyry once she saw that the day was beginning darken.  Gana glanced out the window.  It looked like she would get a good view of the stars that night as she held vigil.  She was ready.  She’d gone through her last yearly trial just a week ago, and during that time, she’d acquired many pelts as she spent the week alone, living off the land and hunting wild creatures with roughly crafted weapons and ice. With the help of her master and father, she’d been able to fashion a decent set of armor from the pelts she’d dragged back.  Gana especially liked the fur lining she’d put on the collar, cuffs, and top of her boots.  She’d made some excuse at the time why she needed them, but in truth, she just liked the way the lining looked.  Still, the hide was strong, and the ice reinforcement had been helpfully critiqued by her battle master to create a strong armor for her trial.

Gana’s parents found her only a moment later and led Gana up the stairs to the roof of the war hall.  The small yeti felt her heart clench for a moment as she ascended.  She had on a date here once.  The elders might have chosen him as her future mate, but Gana had liked the yeti well enough.  He had been straight forward, a little self conscious about his lack of hair, and a bit of a klutz.  Gana had thought he was adorable.  Maybe she’d been a bit young to really fall in love, but most yetis started dating around ten, especially younger siblings who had to receive a weapon from an older tribesman, and it was good she felt an instant affection for the male yeti.  Gana had been sure the elders had chosen the perfect mate for her.  Unfortunately he’d been killed in the same ambush as her brother.

No, Gana would not think about that.  Not now.  Now was the time to concentrate on the future.  Gana would have a new mate in the younger group of yetis that were coming of age at the end of the year.  And while she waited for him to mature, she would have more time before she was expected to give two new members to the tribe.  Personally, she wasn’t looking forward to being pregnant.  For four months she and her mate would be expected to remain solely within the boundaries of their village, delegated lowly jobs, and would have to spend every waking moment together.

Gana shook her head.  She needed to fight.  She needed the excitement of battle, and to test her skills against something powerful, preferably something with plenty of muscles and teeth so she could feel the thrill of dancing so close to death so that victory over a worthy opponent would be that much sweeter.  Just the thought of that moment before a fight began, chilled Gana’s blood and made her wish the night was over so she could engage the enemy sooner rather than later. 

Gana was ready.  She’d learned well how to fight, how to throw herself at the enemy, how to back off when the moment called for it, how keeping fighting even after a grievous wound.  Gana knew how to kill: knew the feeling when her blade sunk into the beast’s body, the sound of cracking of bones and ripping muscle.  She knew the feeling of a fatal blow, how blood was always so hot in warm creatures.  The feel of it as it splashed of her body, like fire droplets against her skin.  Beautiful.  Warm creatures had such beautiful blood, so dark and thick with color.  Even its warmth was captivating.  Gana couldn’t imagine how anything could live with something so hot inside them.  Gana had often caught herself watching as the deep red blood of a recent kill flooded across the white snow, drenching it and then melting and mixing as it settled in and stained the landscape.

When Gana had reached the top and stepped onto the roof, her parents left her, and she walked to the middle of the circle made by the elders.  The elders then clapped their hands, quickly setting a rhythm, and the storm below seemed to grow stronger.  Gana fell to her knees, bending her head for a few beats and then raising it and her hands toward the shinning moon.  Then the elders started to dance.  It was a slow, methodical set of movements that created music by stamping and clapping of the dance itself.  There was no song or battle cry to go with it; they were so high up it was hard for any yeti to breathe. 

Gana knew the dance by heart.  All children learned it in hopes that they would live to be an elder.  Yes, dying in battle was honorable, but they had been losing so many yetis lately that it seemed they were close to extinction.  The yeti tribes the tribe used to be able to turn to for help defending yeti territory from foreign invaders had turned traitor.  It had made some sort of treaty with the enemy.  Now Gana’s tribe no longer fought the enemy on that side of the mountain in fear the yetis on that side would have no problem following them up and slaughtering their tribe while it was weak.  Whenever elders spoke of the past they would spit when they talked about how the other tribes had lost all honor by siding with the enemies and would reminisce fondly about when a yeti and her partner would choose whether they had children to give to the crippled to raise.  Now mates had to produce at least two yetis within a certain timeframe after being united.  In some instances the tribe selected yetis to have additional children. 

Gana brought her focus back to the dance.  She was supposed to reflect on the ancestors and how she would serve the tribe from then on.  The dance of the elders called upon their ancestors.  It was meant to fill the yeti performing her trial with the knowledge needed to take the enemy alone and bring back its head. 

Gana could feel the cold rays of the moon filling her with her peoples’ knowledge and strength.  She hardly noticed when the elders take their leave.  Gana spent the night in prayer, reflecting on the battle ahead.  In the future she would be invaluable to her people: her small stature a gift in many circumstances.  Plus, while she was small, she had more control and power over the cold and ice than her fellow tribesmen. 

Gana’s master had once told her that those of her stature had once been looked down upon, many thrown from the mountain top or left to die after birth.  But then a male had been born of small size.  Like most, he had been left to die, but an old cripple with a big heart and strong connection to the ancestors had taken the small yeti under his wing.  Years later, a rival tribe had attacked the village, decimating her tribe’s number in a surprise attack.  The biggest, toughest warriors had been killed first, and when all seemed lost, the little one had pretended to change sides.  The rest of the story was a lesson on how even what was usually considered cowardly tactics were essential in times of great need.  Within days of his ‘deflection’, the small yeti had broken his fellow tribesmen from their captivity and sabotage the other tribe from the inside out.  Now when a small yeti was born to the tribe they were trained and treated with respect.  Some yetis had still mocked Gana when they thought they wouldn’t be overheard, but mostly Gana felt the pressure that she needed to do something great.  Gana k new she could be a great warrior, the fact she was a gift from their ancestors and a sign of great change meant she felt she needed to be more than a warrior to her tribe.

Still, she believed with the rest that great change would happen now that she was a warrior.  Gana at least would even the playing field.  Through the years, the enemy had encroached on their land, driving them further up the mountain as the enemies’ methods of attack became trickier and more cowardly.  Gana would see to it that the enemy tasted bitter and devastating defeat.  She would take their sons and daughters away from them as they had stolen theirs, and she would cheer as the enemies’ blood spilled on the snow, turning the white landscape red.  She would break their weapons and cover their homes and fields in thick ice.  The enemy would soon be nothing.  Their presence just a memory.  Her tribe would be feared again and rule the Himalayas as they had over a thousand years ago.

As the sun began to rise, so did Gana.  Now was her time to face the enemy. She headed down the stairs to collect the rest of her gear and start her journey down the mountain to where the enemy had raised their wall.  As she did so, she realized this might be the last time she saw her village.  Tradition dictated that she came back with the head of her enemy, or she died fighting.  That was the way of the yeti.  A true yeti didn’t fear battle or death.  Life was a battle, and only those willing to risk their lives and fight for the tribe deserved to live. 

Gana had known a few yetis, through the years, that never returned after they left to complete their trial.  Sometimes their body was found, and they were given a proper burial; most of the time, however, it seemed as if they had simply disappeared and become one with the mountain and ice.  So was the way of things.  Gana had sometimes heard that in the old days their enemies would put the heads of yetis who failed their trial on spikes to taunt their tribesmen.  Of course, the yetis saw this as a challenge, and a bloody battle would be waged.  But the practice had ended a few years ago.  Apparently they thought her tribe wasn’t worth the trouble.  The cowards must feel they were safe behind their great wall with Gana’s tribe forced to retreat to the  very top of the mountain.  

Gana would show them.  She’d take pleasure in seeing their expressions as she gutted them with her spear and removed their heads with Bonebreaker before life had left their eyes.  Soon that head would be the trophy she presented to her people. 

Her old master smiled grimly at Gana as the small yeti entered the armory.  The old warrior had been crippled many years ago, but she had once been a fierce fighter.  It had been said Gana’s master had lost her eye and leg taking on one hundred enemies while protecting her fallen battle sister.  Gana’s parents had specifically asked for Gana to be trained by the old warrior.  While Gana’s master might not have been the best choice since the old yeti was crippled and her style of fighting was much to direct and ham-fisted for Gana to directly mimic and use effectively.  Gana was able to work with her master and develop a style of fighting that complimented and even worked against both small and large opponents.

Gana’s master inspected the small yeti’s armor one last time.  Finally the old yeti nodded and grunted, pointing for Gana to choose her weapon.  Gana hesitated only a second before she headed to select a spear.  It was her preferred weapon, which most other yetis didn’t understand.  Gana could use them effectively against yetis, but she hesitated because the enemy was the same size as her, or so she’d been told, and she wasn’t sure how she’d adjust to a small intelligent warrior.  It might have been better to use a weapon she could use easily in close combat, but Gana still had Bonebreaker, and the ceremonial knife could be used as a common weapon.  She replaced it and tested a couple more until she found the one with a sharp edge and perfect balance.  Her trainer looked her choice over and then handed it back, a sharp smile on her features as she gave Gana one last slap on the shoulder.

Gana left then, heading out the village, spear in hand and pride in her heart.  As she left, pushing through the ice wall that surrounded her village, she couldn’t help but glance back one last time at her home.  She would no longer be a child when she returned. She would be a warrior

Someone poked her on the shoulder, and Gana jumped in surprise.  Then she wasted breath sighing when she realized it was only Pyry.  The obnoxious yeti was doubled over in laughter, taking in deep breaths and making Gana question if she really wanted the silly yeti to be her battle sister.  So Gana pocked at Pyry with the butt of her spear.  Pyry stood to her full height while rolling her eyes.  Gana put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow as she craned her neck back to properly glare at her friend.  The small yeti waited for Pyry to explain what she was doing.  Only trainers were supposed to see a yeti on the day of her trial. 

Pyry took out a necklace from behind her back and presented it to Gana.  It was beautiful, the charms at were three blue stones, the biggest one in the middle in the shape of a diamond.  Gana hesitated as she reached out to take the gift.  The blue stones gave off their own strange power.  Pyry smiled and pulled the necklace away so she could clasp it around Gana’s neck.  The necklace fit Gana perfectly, hanging around her neck so that it was almost a choker.  Gana touched the jewels and gasped.  She had thought the necklace made of ice or stones meant to mimic moon ice, but these were the real things.  Moon ice was precious to her people.  It was a stone found in old crevices of the mountain and difficult to come by.  It was said a yeti could spend their whole lives gathering and cracking boulders looking for the precious jewels and never even find a hint of blue dust.  Usually only yetis of great standing received any moon ice and then the stones were only worn for ceremonial reasons.  Gana felt tears freezing at the side of her eyes, and she threw herself forward and up to clasp her friend in a tight hug.

“Come back,” whispered Pyry, placing her hand over Gana’s heart.  Gana smiled and nodded.  She would do her best to return to the tribe. 

Gana could feel a natural snowstorm building on the other side of the mountain.  She was tempted to go that way; it was where her tribe usually focused their attacks. 

The blizzard would offer her power even after she had moved further down the mountain.  Gana lifted her hood and adjusted her armor so that only her eyes showed out into the world.  The enemy existed further down the mountain.  They couldn’t survive the harsh weather up at the top of the mountain, which was probably the only reason they had not attacked and decimated Gana’s tribe yet.  As Gana started her journey, it didn’t seem long before Gana had traveled far enough down the mountain that the snowstorm was only a little buzz in her bones, and she started feeling the sluggish effects of the warmer weather.  It was summer after all.  Summer was a horrible season to be born.  The weather even close to the top of the mountain could get too hot and the sun shine too long in the sky.  Gana could feel the ancestors’ gift of strength and knowledge slowly slipping away as her concentration went to keeping her body cool.  It was a good thing she wasn’t expected to attack a village.  Instead, she would wait to engage an enemy that foolishly wandered from the safety of its people and home.  Hopefully one would be prideful and stupid enough to stray up the mountain and into yeti territory either by himself or in a small group. 

As the day dragged on, Gana was afraid she would never even see even the great wall she had heard they built.  She could feel the heat sinking into her skin and was grateful for the ice that insulated her armor.  She made certain to concentrate and continue to keep the ice frozen though it stole from her strength. 

The sun had already begun its decent behind the mountain when Gana decided to make camp.  It was clear she would not see any enemies that day and she knew them to be daytime creatures.  Gana found a cool place to lie for the night, and built up the snow around her to obscure her from any predators that might try to attack while she was asleep and help rejuvenate her from heat. 

When Gana woke the next day, she quickly packed some snow against her skin.  She needed to keep cool and the snow on the ground had become patchy in areas.  Gana was sure that soon there would be no snow at all.  The cold was her element, without it she would become sluggish both in mind and body.  The small yeti bundled herself up, trying to capture as much of the cold air close to her skin as she could, remembering some tricks her master and parents had taught her to do when she was forced to fight heat as bad as this.

It turned out Gana where she had settled down for the night wasn’t far from a village.  Gana took time to hunker down and just observe what she could of the enemies’ layout.  Her tribesmen hadn’t been exaggerating when they told her how high the wall the enemy had built was on this side of the mountain.  As she continued to observe, she soon realized there were people on the top of the wall with sticks strapped to their back and who patrolled and looked out in her direction as if waiting for her tribe to attack.  Gana guessed the sticks strapped to the enemies’ back were the kind her trainer said exploded and shot out a small ball of metal that ripped into a yeti’s body, potentially killing you if it was aimed at the right place.  The sticks were a coward’s weapon, but the enemies were cowards, so their sticks suited them. 

Gana drew back into the brushes.  She would look around, further back from the wall.  There was bound to be someone outside the town, scavenging, hunting, or taking their animals out to graze.  Gana would find her prize soon enough.  She drifted for a while in the bushes and shadows, looking out and not daring to get too close to the wall, or go too far into the open.  The sun went past the midpoint, but Gana waited.  Her prey would come as long as she was patient. 

And then she saw him.  He was wearing a light jacket and had one of those exploding sticks strapped to his back.  Gana still didn’t quite understand how the stick could hurt her.  She had seen a wound created by one when she had been taken to learn basic healing, but she still didn’t understand how a stick could cause a little piece of metal to get lodged inside her.  The stick didn’t appear to be supporting a sling of any kind, and even if there was one, Gana wasn’t sure how it could be made to throw the little metal ball so fast.  Actually, now that Gana was close to the enemy, she couldn’t help but notice how incredibly short he was.  It was one thing to be told that a creature that walked on two feet was her height, and another to see it.

Gana shifted her grip on her spear.  She kept close to the ground; the enemy didn’t seem to realize that she was stalking him.  Good, he wouldn’t know what hit him until it was too late.  The seconds seem to stretch by, Gana waited for just the right moment, and then she charged.  The enemy turned, and Gana smiled.  She wasn’t truly trying to be sneaky after all.  The enemy needed to be engaged face to face.  That was the way of the trial.  

He fumbled for his stick, and Gana easily knocked it to the side.  He twisted, moving his body enough so that her spear missed running him through, but in a second Gana had shifted her weight, let go of her spear, and tossed the enemy over and onto his back.  He gasped for air before twisting again, Gana’s Bonebreaker digging into the ground where he used to be and catching his jacket.  The enemy then struck up with his arm, and only years of practice had Gana dodging in time as the blade clutched in his hand would have sliced open her throat.  The mask was only leather now since the ice had melted away. 

Gana rolled off him, and she pulled her spear from the earth.  He rolled onto his feet and took a wide stance as he faced her.  The enemy was already breathing hard.  He showed some sign of training in fighting, though she could tell he’d never been on the battle field before, probably because he was her age.  Gana was sure he was, the only real physical difference between them seemed to be the color of their skin, and that she was more powerful then him. 

Gana hardened her heart.  The enemy had to die and killing him should be no different than killing a mountain giant that had been touched by madness.  If he was as old as her then he had no excuse being a weaker warrior than her.  Gana shifted the spear in her hand and ran to build up speed for another attack.  The male held his weapons awkwardly and was able to dodge the tip of her spear again.  Gana let her momentum carry her forward before she pivoted, twisting the spear so it tripped him and knocking the boy to the ground.  In doing so, she easily disarmed him and gained the upper hand.  A few well placed elbows and knees had him gasping on the ground with her on top of him.  He tried to knock her off, but he was weak, and she hit his head with the butt of her spear before winding him. 

The enemy was at her mercy.  Gana smiled and adjusted so she was pinning him to the ground, making it impossible for him to move, without using her hands.  She then slid Bonebreaker out of its scabbard and pushed his neck so it was bared to her.  She pulled back to deliver the blow and met the boy’s eyes.

“Please,” he whispered, tears leaking from his eyes.  His struggles were feeble, and Gana knew she shouldn’t care.  Not for his life or the fact he was weak.  She’d killed plenty of times, and many creatures had been more docile and their cries more pathetic than his.  Killing him should be easy; by killing him she continued to ensure the survival of her tribe.  This boy and his ancestors had killed and hunted her kind since they’d invaded her tribe’s mountains. 

Gana adjusted her grip on Bonebreaker and placed the edge of the blade on the enemies’ neck.  She still couldn’t seem to be able to force her body to make that last fatal cut.  Besides his skin color and small size, he looked so much like a yeti.  Mountain giants resembled hairy yetis, and Gana had felt no remorse killing one she had befriended after he fell into blood fever.  Gana told herself this, repeating it back in her mind as she looked into the enemy’s eyes, her hand was staid.  He wanted to live.  He probably hadn’t come out in search of yetis, the stick Gana had thrown away so easily was meant probably for protection.  He was so weak.  The fact he was weak should have disgusted Gana and made it easier for her to kill him, instead it somehow made it impossible for her to deliver the killing blow.

Gana found her will weakening as she looked into her enemies’ eyes.  She shouldn’t care for his life.  Yet as she looked down on him, she could feel the bloodlust that had been pounding through her veins fading away.  She didn’t understand why it was so hard to kill him.  He was the enemy.  In a day or two, if she let him go, he could come up the mountain in a raid to decimate her tribe.  So why couldn’t she kill him?  She growled and finally was able to press pushing Bonebreaker’s blade against and apply enough pressure to draw a trickle of blood.  The boy’s eyes closed and he looked away from her.  Gana could feel his body trembling in fear.

So easy.  She was so close to killing him.  As soon as she presented his head, she would have proven her worth.  With his head in her hand she would finish her trial and become a warrior of her tribe.  Without his head in her hands when she returned, without the head of an enemy, she was worthless.  By the laws of her tribe, she would be killed. 

Blood.  Beautiful red blood on snow. 

But there was no snow.  It was too warm for snow so far down the mountain. 

The boy started crying.  Gana looked up at his face to see tears streaming freely down his face and mixing with snot.  Gana didn’t understand.  This was contemptible. The enemy was contemptible.  He was crying.  Warriors didn’t cry at the thought of their death.  He wasn’t a warrior. 

He deserved death.  His whole cowardly race deserved death. 

Gana stood, slipping Bonebreaker back into its sheath.  She then turned her back to the enemy, going to retrieve her spear from where she dropped it.  Gana had been defeated.  That was the only thing she knew for certain.  Even though she had been more powerful, had him pinned to the ground and at her mercy, he had won because she didn’t have the stomach to kill him.  Gana was not a true yeti.  She was weak, pathetic, and deserving of death.  What use was she if she couldn’t kill the enemy?

As the small yeti turned to head back to her tribe and her fate, she was only half aware of the boy getting up behind her.  Finally he seemed to get his bearings, and, screaming, he charged her.  Gana was tempted to allow him to kill her.  After all, she was a dead already.  But to let such a weakling kill her was completely against her nature.  Instead she sidestepped his clumsy attempt and jammed her elbow into his solar plexus.  He went down hard and gasping.  She rolled her eyes, walked over a few paces, picked up his stick, and threw it at him.  If he was going to kill her, it might as well be with a weapon he was good at, even if it was a coward’s weapon.

But no explosion went off, and Gana didn’t feel the bite of metal.  Maybe she had knocked him against the ground a little too hard.  Too bad, Gana had a feeling that soon she would be wishing he’d killed her.  Absently, Gana checked behind her.  He was sitting there, staring at her; stick clutched awkwardly in his arms.  The small yeti wondered what kept him from killing her now.  Did he have the same problem killing her as she had killing him?  Or was he just too cowardly to take her on himself now and was going to muster a small army from the nearby village?

Gana let her head fall back and sent a prayer to the ancestors asking them to keep her tribe safe.  


	2. Honor

Chapter Two

Honor

The walk back to the top of the mountain was long, and Gana ended up setting up camp for a night.  After gathering a good sized snow pile, she found some wood so she could build a small fire.  In ancient tradition, fires were built during hard times to represent the difficulty of overcoming obstacles and act as a medium to send the tribes’ prayers to their ancestors.  Gana knew she had no business asking anything of her ancestors, but she prayed to them that they might give her guidance anyway.  She was desperate and afraid she could no longer trust herself to do the right and honorable thing. 

Gana would not run from her fate.  She had failed her tribe, and as she must face whatever punishment the elders decided to bestow on her.  The truth of this formed and solidified as she prayed.  For comfort Gana rested her hand on her necklace.  Then the small yeti slowly reached her hand back and unclasped the gift, letting the necklace fall into her other hand.  The moon ice caught the light of the fire, little reflections of light from the fire flew from inside the stone, scattering in all directions across Gana and the snow.  Gana did not deserve this gift, and yet, the evil that was in her heart did not want to let Pyry rip it from her neck.  The thought of her friend giving the necklace to some other battle maiden made a killing fire of jealousy well within Gana’s heart.

A sob tried to escape Gana, but she choked it back.  Now she was acting as deplorably as the enemy had.  How low was she to let tears and sadness overtake her?  Tears of joy were one thing, but she disgraced herself and her people by crying over something that was entirely her own fault.  Maybe she was evil.  Maybe there was something wrong with her.  Well, obviously there was something wrong with her.  Gana hadn’t been able to kill the enemy and take revenge for all the lives, land, and resources he and his people had taken from her tribe.  But why?  Why when she looked at the enemy under her blade had she stayed her hand and not simply slit his throat?  She’d killed animals before, and that was just for food.  She hadn’t hated the animals she hunted. 

The enemy had killed her brother and future partner.  They had hurt her personally.  It wasn’t just about avenging her tribe.  She knew in her heart that killing them was the right thing to do.  The only way to survive.  By her hesitation and inability to destroy that threat, she had proven herself to be nothing but a failure and a traitor. 

Gana looked down at the necklace resting in her hand one last time before she chucked it into the fire. 

-A-B-B-E-Y-B-O-M-I-N-A-B-L-E-

The day burned bright the next morning.  Gana forced herself to get up, brushing the snow from her clothes.  Night fell again before she reached her village, but her feet were dragging and she was afraid that if she stopped she wouldn't be able to do the honorable thing and face her fate.

The sun was just rising when she arrived at her village.  A couple of yetis guarding the entrance saw her coming and at first stared at her in confusion, but it wasn't long before their expressions turned distant and hard.  A group of guards quickly formed and flanked her. They were probably making sure the small yeti didn’t try to run from her punishment.  Gana wasn’t planning on running.  Why would she come back if she planned on trying to escape justice?  No, Gana would not run from her fate, even though by yeti laws her punishment would end in her death.  No, she had expected this and at this point found that she welcomed death.  What use was a warrior that couldn’t fight?  That couldn’t kill?

By the time she had was escorted to the meeting area, it seemed as if the entire tribe had gathered to see her punishment.  All the elders stood before her, though Gana knew they all had regular duties in the morning.  Gana wasn’t able to meet their eyes, instead she stared at the ground under her feet, wishing she’d removed her coif so she could cover her face with her hair.  The yetis flanking her threw her to the ground when they got a couple of feet from the elders.  Gana ended up sprawled a couple of inches from the elders’ feet the pictures carved under her fingers reminding her of how much of a failure she was.  She moved slowly, head bent until she was sitting on her knees. 

The trial didn’t last long.  It wasn't much of a trial anyway.  It was obvious what had happened… well, what hadn’t happened.  No breath was wasted debating or questioning her.  Gana kept her head down the entire time, so she didn’t see any of the signs used to declare her guilty.  The way time seemed to drag was probably more in her head than reality.  The decision was easy.  The trainers had always told stories about the importance of the trial and described to their apprentices in detail what happened to the traitors who came back from their trial without the head of the enemy. 

Gana wondered briefly what the reactions of the individuals in her tribe were, especially that of her parents, Pyry’s, and her trainers.  But she was too much of a coward to dare to look up and find them in the crowd.  Some part of her wondered what she was afraid of.  She had already proven that she was a coward when she didn’t kill the enemy.  She might as well face the judgment of those she loved the most.  She deserved it, and yet, her mind eagerly supplied what their expressions probably were, and that was bad enough.  Gana's head stayed bent. 

When the room had emptied of everyone but the elders, she felt the vibe of room change from one of predetermined deliberation to action.  There was a moment where Gana tried to brace herself mentally and physically for her punishment.  She was even able to keep from flinching when they removed her spear and Bonebreaker.  And then the first blow fell on Gana's back and knocked the air from her lungs.  Gana tried not to scream or even gasp too deeply.  She would not waste everyone else’s breath in her last minutes. 

Someone kicked her head.  Gana tried to remind herself not to move, to just endure; she had no right to fight back.  Pain coursed through her body as someone cracked her ribs.  Another foot seemed to dig into her stomach, and she swore she heard a leg break.  She fought back instinctively, her teeth sinking into leather boots only briefly before she remembered her place the foot dug into her mouth as she released them and she curled in a ball as the beating continued.  Soon the beating lost its ferocity, but even then it seemed to go on forever, hands and feet taking turns kicking her across the floor and grinding into her body.  Every inch of her was alight in pain, and every bone felt like it had been broken twice over.  Still, they hadn’t brought steal out to break her skin or stripped her to perform more perverse punishments that would drag her agony out for days or even months.  In times of desperation, not even the fear of what a child born of a traitor would grow up to be suspended the duty of the traitor to supply the tribe with a child. 

Maybe Gana would be lucky.  Perhaps after this beating they would slit her throat or lead her to plummet from the cliff face and be done with her.  Gana tried to hold back the tears that tried to escape; it was bad enough that she didn’t have the strength to meet their eyes.  She shouldn’t have been born.  It was clear that she was the pathetic sort of small yeti.  Gana was nothing but a blight on her people, and stronger small yetis born to the tribe would face discrimination because of her.  She should have been born when small yetis were left to die once born. 

The elders pulled back on her coif so she was forced to look up.  She met the disappointed, furious expression of her father.  She couldn’t face him, and she closed her eyes in shame.  Someone spat on her, and she ignored it.  She couldn’t feel it through her armor anyway, and someone was lifting her chin as if to bare her neck.  Death was upon her, she just knew it.  And then a needle pierced through the skin of her lower lip.  Gana tried to jerk back instinctively, but the elder held her chin firmly in place, muttering something about her no longer talking and wasting air.  The pain became unbearable as the needle threaded and pierced from her lower lip to upper lip and then back down again. The beating had been like aches acquired from easy training session compared to the continuous assault of sharp pain digging through her lips and the slip of leather through the holes the needle made as the thick thread ran through each newly pierced piece of flesh as the elder sewed her mouth shut. 

As her mouth was sewn shut, her arms had been held to the side.  After they tied off the thread on her lips, they slipped her gloves from her hands. She felt breath catch in her throat, but she tried to push back her fear as blood filled her mouth.  Gana felt the need for some dignity at the end.  She didn’t want to be remembered only as a failure.  She would take this, all of it, and bare it the best she could.  She owed her tribe that much at least. 

Gana’s mother held her daughter’s hands against the ground, palms up.  Gana felt the urge to confess to her, and all of them, why she had betrayed them.  She wanted to tell them why she had looked the enemy in the eyes and been unable to kill him.  But the truth was that she didn’t know why she had frozen when so close to accomplishing her task.  Plus, what would it matter anyway?  The bottom line was that she hadn’t killed him.  Wasn’t that the only thing that mattered in the end?

Gana flinched as Bonebreaker was pressed next to her thumb.  She bit her lips as well as she could, her bottom tusks sinking into her lips and the thread pulling the fresh wounds as Bonebreaker’s blade dragged diagonally across her palm: thumb to pinky, pointer to wrist.  Blue blood welled from the deep wounds; soon the thick liquid ran too fast and froze on the ground.  Bonebreaker then moved and etched the same two lines across her other hand.  Gana stared at her hands in confusion.  Why were they doing this?  What did x’s on her palms even mean?  There hadn’t been any stories where traitors were branded with these types of scars. 

The yetis flanking Gana then picked her up and drag her away.  Gana let her head loll from side to side.  She tried to stand and stumble along, but ended up being dragged out of the meeting area and through the village, as her legs were too weak to hold her.  Instead Gana concentrated on breathing with cracked and broken ribs through a broken nose and sewn mouth filled with blood.  Pain made her dizzy, and even if Gana wanted to lift her head to see her home one last time before she was thrown from the cliff, she couldn’t see through the blur of pain that weakened her eyes. 

And then the small yeti was thrown.  Peace filled her mind and soul for a second as she finally found relief.  Soon she would no longer burn with pain and regret. 

Except, instead of falling, wind whistling through her body and gravity pulling her faster and faster until she crashed to the ground in a broken heap for predators to find and make a feast of, she landed hardly a second later on hard ice.  Her arms buckled and shook as she sat up, wincing again as pain from the beating flooded her body. 

She fell back to the ground, gasping.

“And as such we condemn you to exile.” Gana felt as if her body had turned to immovable ice for a moment before she turned to confront the elders on what he meant, but the doors to her old home were already closed to her.  The guards glared at her, daring her to try and get back into the village.  Gana just stared at them dumbly.  She couldn’t be exiled, that wasn’t the punishment for those who came back without the head of the enemy.  No.  Exile… exile was ten times worse.  The elders, her parent, they were the ones being cowards.  Why couldn’t they just have killed her?  What stopped them from doing their duty and killing her? 

The guards growled at her, their hands gripping their weapons.  Gana realized she must have moved toward them in her panic.  Gana just continued stare at them.  What use would it be to attack them?  The thought crossed her mind that they might kill her, but then, they would have done that already if that had been the elders' intent.  No, they probably wouldn’t kill her, just use enough force to keep her out of the village and drive her far from her home if she persisted. 

Gana forced herself to look away and tried to stand.  Time and time again as she tried to shift her weight to her arms and legs, she found herself collapsing to the ground. The first time she tried to stand she broke out in a sweat and threw up.  The second time, her legs gave out from under her before she made it to her knees.  Eventually she just started to crawl away.  She could feel the bones in her arms slowly knitting back together faster than those in her legs, and she had to get away.  She had betrayed her people, and to repay her, they had betrayed her.  They had damn near killed her, beaten her bloody and left her to the cover of snow, with no one to share their power of life with and no tribe to connect and share ancestry with.  No more ancestors.  She was without home and family and past.  The yetis were her enemy.  Perhaps they wouldn’t outright kill her, but they would not help her, and they would drive her out from wherever she tried to make home.  There was no where safe to go, and the things that were once her enemy, well, they would still kill her on sight.  She was alone. 

Laughter bubbled from her lips; tugging at her stitches and causing pain explode from her mouth.  She pulled herself up and rested against an ice cliff.  Blood dribbled down her skin and each drop gathered at the tip of her chin before falling onto her armor like frozen blue pearls.  Gana lifted up her mask and hood to cover her face.  Tears had gathered at the edge of her eyes, but they were happy tears, they had to be.  She was laughing wasn’t she?  She had become as bad as Pyry, wasting breath on such harsh laughter.  Too much air wasted, she needed to leave.  This was no longer her home.  She no longer had a tribe.  In truth, since she had been cast out of the tribe and renounced as a member (because what else could the cuts on her hands and the absence of the ancestors grace and power in her heart be), she no longer even had a name.  She could still call herself Gana.  But what was the point?

She needed to go down the mountain, away from those who used to be her people.  Gana could no longer force her presence on them.  Plus, she couldn’t lie down and die, so instead she would gather as much will as she could and force her aching legs to carry her downward toward the enemy and scorching heat.  Gana would survive as long as she could by herself.  She wouldn’t last long, the internal damage inflicted by the beating was bad and wouldn't heal itself fast enough to save her.  Perhaps a night curled with her parents or with Pyry under the moon would have healed her well enough that she could survive to the next day, but on her own…

But she had to try to live.  The elders had chosen not killed her.  That meant they left Gana to live, at least for as long as she could.  Not as part of their tribe, never again as one of them, but they left her life to fate.  If she survived her wounds, her tribe would not track her down and kill her, and Gana could not take her own life.  This was her punishment, to live as long as fate saw fit alone without friend, tribe, or meaning.  To live with her guilt and the knowledge that she was a cowardly traitor not even worthy of death. 

By some trick of fate, Gana found her necklace under all the soot and ashes from the fire she had built.  Her useless prayers may have done nothing, but the necklace, it lay in the black charred remains of branches untouched by the heat.  Perfect, it was still perfect.  Gana pushed the soot off of it to reveal the glittering stones, and then reverently hooked it around her neck with aching hands.  The moon ice gave her power.  It gave her meaning, and without conscious thought, the small yeti was standing and moving, her steps fast as if she was gliding on ice.  She could make it.  If she lived through another night, then maybe the moon’s cold rays would be enough to help fix her enough to survive. 

The day was both short and long.  Time and consciousness slipped through her fingers and jumped in length and clarity through Gana’s mind.  Yet her feet kept her moving down the mountain step by step, sped up by the slopes of sliding ice where she could give her legs a rest.  When Gana got far enough down, she was able to find a tree branch to use as a walking stick.  It didn’t seem to help much as she began to walk again, her body still screamed in pain as it shifted to a new position and tried to collapse on every step or minute pause.  Still, Gana pressed on, careful that the armor she still wore covered her body.  For once her size was an asset to her.  If she came across an enemy, she was likely to be mistaken for one of them. 

Still, her hands were visible, and the cloth around it was deep blue from her blood.  Maybe if she kept her distance from the enemy, she could find some safe place to tend to her wounds and try to recover.  She would be safe.  Well, as safe as she could be in the dangerous Himalayas. 

Soon the sun began to set, but the heat that had been creeping into her bones did not abate as she had thought it would.  Gana had thought the heat was due to heading down the mountain in summer, but what if she had started to develop a fever?  A fever could be as deadly to a yeti as a fatal wound through the brain.  Gana began to send a prayer to the moon but stopped.  Who would the moon turn her prayers to?  She no longer had any ancestors.  She had no connection to past warriors to call on to lend strength and knowledge.  All she had was the snow and cold, and even the cold had begun to abandon her. 

Gana’s knees gave out, and the small yeti sank to the ground.  Her vision had been swimming all day, but now it came in and out in waves of light and darkness that made everything the color of green grass and pink/purple hair.  she dug her hands into the snow underneath her to draw in strength even as she felt the fever overtaking her body and nausea cling at her throat.

The boy, the enemy she had been destined to kill now stood before her.  His image swam as a mirage in her hallucination, a beacon of her death.  Because the moment her blade had frozen at his neck, she had been dead.  It was fitting then that he be the one to metaphorically finish her off.  Gana looked up at him, and then the sky, a scattering of stars filling her sight.

“Yeti!” she hardly paid any attention to the phantom, though why her hallucination was so chatty was a bit weird.  Why would she let a hallucination waste breath like that?  Then again, count on the enemy to even steal the air from a dying yeti.  Slowly Gana’s vision went fuzzy, and her eyes became heavy.  The enemy began to kneel in front of her and reach out as if to strangle her.  Gana was so tired.  There was nothing left for her in this life.  The small yeti breathed in what could be her last few breaths, and then she allowed the darkness to drift her toward the stars and to death.

As such, it was a surprise to wake up the next morning to sun sinking hot rays against her eyelids.  Gana scrunched up her nose and turned away and into the snow beneath her.  After a moment of trying to ignore her still sore body and fall back asleep, she finally gave up and sat up to look around her.  With a sigh she massaged her forehead.  Well, the moon had kept her alive to survive another day.  Her body still ached, but blood no longer fell from her mouth or hands.  Then again, if she had still been bleeding, she would have either bled out or choked on her blood during the night.

Someone groaned beside her.  Instantly Gana was up on her feet, falling instinctively into a fighting stance as she turned to face whoever it was.  It couldn't be a tribesman, and there weren't any creatures or tribes friendly with the one she had been cast out of, except, perhaps, a mountain giant.  She had no allies.  All she had were enemies. 

The boy from the day before pushed himself up, groaning and rubbing his eyes and yawning widely.  Gana looked at him in shock.  She had thought he was a hallucination.  Instead, it appeared he was real, which meant she was even more confused as to why she alive.

“Are you going to try and kill me again?” asked the boy.  His voice was deep even if his actions the day, or days, before had been cowardly.  It took her a second to remember to respond to his question.  She quickly shook her head and stood straight, her fingers still itched to create an ice weapon, but she resisted.  He grunted and wiggled out of his sleeping bag.  He made an odd noise; his lips moving rapidly as he quickly rubbed his hands against his arms and started to roll his pack.  Every once in a while he would throw Gana a subtle glance.  Gana watched him openly. “Are you from the tribe that lives on top of the mountain?”

Gana immediately nodded and then stopped, remembering that she that no, she wasn’t from her tribe anymore.  The boy snorted, drawing her attention again.

“That’s what the people in Rito village assumed,” said the boy as he threw his pack on his back, wincing as a little as it hit his stick.  He immediately started readjusting so he would have easier access to his stick if need be.  Gana watched him in fascination.  He appeared to be completely incompetent.  She didn’t understand how he survived so long, but perhaps she just caught him at a very bad time.  He glanced her way. “I’ve never seen a yeti as small as you.”

So he had fought with yetis.  Now she really felt like a traitor by not taking his life.  She could remedy that here.  The boy obviously wasn’t a skilled fighter. She could drive an ice dagger across his throat before he even had a chance to properly grip his weapon.

“Well, you seem to be doing much better than last night, and you’re not trying to kill me, so I say I made the right call,” said the enemy.  Didn’t he know he was wasting his breath by stating such an obvious fact? “I’m going to head back to my village now.  Not that I have anything to show for my efforts out all weekend, but they should understand.  The regular hunting group probably brought in plenty of meat anyway.”

That caught Gana’s attention.  She watched for a second as the boy started to head back down the mountain, probably toward his village.  One part called for her to spill his blood across the snow, but another remembered there was another tradition.  Without his care, and the sharing of his life force, Gana would be dead.  She was sure of it.  But since he had slept besides her and shown some care in her wellbeing, he had saved her.  If he was still her enemy it would mean a promise not to kill him during battle, but she was homeless and disgraced.  His saving her meant her life was now his.  He could ask her to do anything, and she would have to comply.

Still, Gana wasn’t sure if that tradition held any weight.  Traitors, and the rules associated to yetis who had been cast from the tribe wasn’t something often talking about in training.  No one was supposed to remember those thrown from the tribe.  They didn’t exist and thus there were no rules for yetis that didn’t exist.  On the other hand, yetis had a very strict code of honor, so there had to be rules for those that found themselves thrown from the tribe.  Gana just didn’t know what they were.

So Gana followed the boy as he headed down the mountain.  At first he didn’t seem to notice, too caught up in his own thoughts presumably.  When he did realize she was following him, he became very jumpy and extra chatty and eventually made it clear by the way he kept stopping to let Gana catch up to him that he wanted her to walk next to him if she was going to accompany him.  Gana found his jumpiness funny, even if it made sense that he didn't want her walking behind him.  For all he knew, Gana was tricking him into a false sense of security before she attacked.  The effort to do this seemed a waste to Gana, but the enemy probably thought in weird ways and her master had always emphasized how tricky and cowardly the enemies’ battle tactics were, so she eventually started walking beside him. 

But she couldn’t ask the boy anything.  She could feel the hardened blood on her tongue as she touched the sensitive skin of her inner lips with her tongue.  Gana wondered if it would be best to cut the cords binding her mouth but quickly decided against it.  The elders had sewed her mouth shut for a reason, and even if she couldn’t kill this boy on a technicality, the least she could do was uphold their punishment. It wasn’t like she talked much anyway.  Talking had always been more of Pyry’s thing. 

Gana paused.  Was she supposed to think about her past?  Then again, she could hardly control all of her thoughts, and all she had known about the world had revolved around killing and her tribe.  They could banish her and ceremoniously pretend she never existed, but Gana could hardly strip her memories.  Especially since all her memories were connected to her lost tribe in one way or another. 

Finally the boy seemed to be overcome by his curiosity and asked Gana some general and meaningless questions about her life.  Since she couldn’t answer him, she didn’t pay much attention to what he was actually asking.  She was pretty sure he gave up fairly quickly and went back to talking about nothing and wasting breath.

“Oh, by the way, I’m Karuna,” he said about an hour into their walk. Gana now had a name to call him by instead of boy or enemy. “Um, no offense, but why are you following me?”

He paused, looking back at her.  Gana was tempted to pull down her face mask and show him her stitches, but she was a little hesitant.  She was pretty sure that her mask was glued to her mouth with her own blood and she was already in enough pain without trying to rip her stitches open again.  It didn’t matter anyway; Karuna didn’t wait long before he started talking again.

“I mean, I was looking for you.  Not sure why, I mean, I think it was the whole ambush and then run away thing that really got me interested.  Which, the guys at Rito village said it was probably you going through some trial thing.  Apparently you guys come down at a certain age and… but they’re not sure.  Usually when that happens someone ends up dead instead of just traumatized.  I just remembered being attacked, and I mean, you have amazing strength, more than you should.  Like you’re a little devil or something,” Karuna chattered away.  They were now walking next to ten foot tall stone wall that was gradually became shorter and shorter the further they walked along it. 

Gana sent a sideways glare Karuna’s way.  She was not a little devil.  She was only a little shorter than him and was a yeti.  Calling her anything but a yeti was an insult.  Her heart clenched then as reality set in.  What did it matter what she actually was?  In the eyes of her people, she was nothing, a disgrace.  Better to be a little demon then a yeti without a tribe.  At least demons were known for their treachery and cowardice, and she wouldn’t be tricking any yetis into trusting her, though the marks her tribe had left probably told any yeti she encountered that she was a traitor anyway.

“Really I don’t know what I was thinking.  Oh, here’s our spot.” Karuna kept wasting more and more air on what seemed now like nervous babbling.  Gana wanted to knock him upside the head for being so careless, but she was sure that someone in her position wasn’t supposed to do anything of the sort toward the person who had helped her.  No matter how much like a ninny he was acting.  Karuna climbed between the rocks where the wall had toppled.  Gana was tempted to jump the wall which was just below her shoulder at this point to show how pathetic the thing was.  This wall would do absolutely nothing to stop her people if they decided to attack this side of the mountain.  It wouldn’t even slow them down.

Karuna didn’t walk through any villages thankfully; Gana was still trying to figure out how to explain to him that her life was now his to do with as he choose before he got to his village.  He had long since moved on from wondering why she was trailing around behind him.  Now he appeared to be talking about yaks and sheep.  Gana just shook her head and tried to figure out the best signs to tell him what had happened. 

“Here we are,” Karuna said, stopping suddenly.  Gana looked up from where she had been studying the ground to see a fairly large village.  There were buildings everywhere.  In the old days, the enemy had lived in tents.  Now their homes were made of stone and stacked one on top of each other.  Some of the houses on the side she could see were smaller and thatched with wood, but most were taller than the dome of her village where her people would walk to receive power from the ancestors.

“So, anyway.” Gana glanced over to where Karuna was now standing, his expression crunched together as he shifted from foot to foot. “I mean, this has been great, and I feel like a tool doing this, because when I met you last night you’d obviously gotten into some serious fight, because I didn’t make you pass out like that.  I mean, I don’t think I even bruised you when we fought. But, you understand right?  I can’t take you into my village.  You’re from the yetis on top of the mountain.  I mean, you didn’t kill me, but…”

Gana took a step away from Karuna.   Of course she understood.  Was he going to kill her?  She wouldn’t be able to stop him through her own code if that’s what he chose to do.  And killing her would be his best option considering the situation he found himself in and what he seemed to understand.  To him, she was still the enemy.  To leave an enemy alive was disgraceful.  Gana gave up any thought of trying to explain through sign.  It wouldn't be worth the trouble. 

“If you can’t go home, because I mean, why else would you follow me around?” Karuna continued to prattle and Gana wished he’d just kill her and be done with it. “So, anyway, if you head back toward your right and then take the fork.  A little higher up there’s another tribe of yetis.  I’m sure they’ll be happy to take you in.  Tell them Karuna sent you.  Wait a minute.  Here.” Karuna dug into his pack and then gave her a little gold circle. “They’ll know what that is, I think.”

Gana stared at him for a second and then looked down at the little gold disk now in the palm of her hands.  The little gold disk was warm in her hands.  It was like a little sun; it even caught light and threw little blinding rays into her eyes.  But under it, under that little gift from the boy that had saved her life met her blue skin, were her scars.  The cross of blue lines that had knitted itself back together during the night, but the scars still remained.  Gana stared at them.  Bonebreaker had made them, and even healed, there was a tinge of pain that flooded her body whenever she flexed her hands.  Even the little disk’s weight pressing on the wounds was sending tiny fractures of warnings to her brain.

Slowly she closed her hand, bending her head and trying to keep her mouth loose so she wouldn’t cause herself more pain by pulling at her stitches.  Not that it seemed to matter.  She might have healed enough to save her from death, but her entire body still ached from the beating, many of her ribs still cracked and her bones slowly mending back together.

When Gana finally opened her eyes, Karuna was nowhere insight.  Gana was alone again, left to her own devises when it would have been kinder to kill her. 


	3. A Gift to the Enemy

Gana did not go to the yeti village Karuna had directed her toward.  Karuna obviously didn't understand how yetis thought and lived.  The yetis Karuna had tried to send her to join were a rival tribe.  Even though Gana had been cast from her own tribe did not mean other tribes were now her friend.  In some ways they were more likely to view her worse than her lost tribe.  The rival tribe would probably kill her on sight or torture her for information before killing her.  So no, Gana wouldn't go and ask the rival tribe to take her in.  Committing that sort of suicide was not only cowardly, but could endear her lost tribe.  Plus, even if they did take her in, joining a rival tribe was dishonorable, and Gana had been dishonorable enough for one lifetime.

Even if her life hadn't belonged to Karuna, the small yeti didn’t deserve to be a part of a tribe.  So, Karuna could tell Gana to do anything he wanted, except to claim they were even and give Gana a little golden disk to show her support.  Gana's life was still his.  Until she somehow repaid that debt, or Gana died defending him.  So, Gana did not go to the rival tribe to die.  Instead she fashioned herself a spear and cleared a nearby cave of its inhabitants.  The bear meat and pelts served her well over the next week or so, and in that time Gaba and began to acquaint and make herself comfortable with the landscape around the enemy village.  Most of the meat the small yeti froze and placed near the back of her cave where she felt it was safe to assume it wouldn't melt and spoil while she was out.  But just to be safe, Gana set some to the side.  That portion of meat she cut into strips and set it out to dry under the summer sun.  When the meat had dried to what Gana thought was appropriate, she brought the jerky in and destroyed the tools she used  dry the meat so the enemy wouldn't find it and start looking for her before she wanted to be known. 

Finally Gana had time to sit and reflect and figure out how to approach Karuna again and get in his good favor.  The small yeti had to wonder how Karuna and her had made it down the mountain so quickly. Sure, when they had reached  Karuna's village it had been close to dusk, but Gana hadn’t realized how far past the snow line Karuna had led them, but there were hints it was further than most yetis in her tribe had ever gone even on the otherside.  Gana constantly felt overheated these last few days, and while a nice cold breeze picked up in the afternoon, most of the day the small yeti felt as if she was about to melt.  If Karuna had lived any further down the mountain, Gana was sure she wouldn’t have been able to stay close to him.

Gana finished binding a sharpened rock to the end of the sturdy looking branch she’d whittled so she could have a serviceable spear.  The first one having already broken, Gana inspected the hastily made weapon.  Like the meat, the spear wasn’t anything special, but could have turned out worst.  Gana tested balance and nodded to herself.  She felt she’d done the best she could with the supplies she had.

When Gana had finally settled down again and replayed in her mind what Karuna told her.  It was hard to recall it all.  For one thing, he'd never stopped talking and Gana had turned him out.  For another, it felt like a lifetime since she'd been cast from her tribe and saved by the enemy.  But Gana figured that in some small ways, she could help him.  The boy had said something about not being able to get any meat during his hunting trip.  Hunting animals for his village might have been his trial, since it seemed foolish to go out hunting on one’s own especially since Karuna was so weak.  Meeting Gana had been bad luck on Karuna's part as well as hers.  Getting attacked by the small yeti meant that Karuna hadn’t been able to bring back any food or provisions for his village.  Gana would make up for that.  While she couldn’t part with her bear meat, she could go hunting for yak meat.  Yak meat was much tastier than bear meat, and it was a delicacy that Gana herself usually only got during big celebrations.  The small yeti had done a little scouting around their village and seen that while Karuna's village did have a small herd of sheep and goats, but for no yaks herds.

Unfortunately Gana hadn't gotten close enough to listen to any of the villagers conversations to try and find out why the villagers didn't have a herd.  Yaks were in abundance on the mountain.  There used to be plenty of wild ones that Gana's tribe hunted annually and there were even some now.  They had been thinking of domesticating a herd of their own, since the tribe got the meat so rarely.  The yaks had become scarce as the enemy pushed in and started penning up the wild yaks and domesticating them.  When the traitor yeti tribes made a pack with the invading humans, wild yak became almost extinct.   Gana's old tribe couldn’t kill every yak they found either since they needed the yaks to mate and the population to hopefully increase in the coming years, but it seemed fruitless when the enemy or rival tribe would invade and either kill or steal those yaks.

Gana shook her head to chase away those thoughts.  What did she care anymore about conserving yaks to help her old tribe?  Her tribesmen could became extinct for all she cared.  Gana felt her body physically freeze and mentally burn at the thought.  That was a horrible.  She didn’t wish ill on her past tribesmen, it wasn’t their fault she had turned out to be a coward and a traitor.  They had done everything to raise Gana as a working part of their tribe.  Gana parents had recruited the best past warriors to train their diminutive daughter, and her trainers had sent her on hunting missions where she fought wild cats and boars and taught her to be a working part of the community despite her size.  They had done everything to shape Gana into a respectable clan member.  Gana was the one who failed her trial. 

As punishment, they had spared her life.

Her old tribe had thrown her out into the world to spend the rest of her life alone.  Yetis weren’t meant to be on their own.  Yes, they drew power from snow and cold.  But most knowledge and true power came from the ancestors and from being close to the tribe.  Yetis' healing came from sharing life and love.  A yeti without tribesmen around her was nothing and bound to fall into madness eventually.  It was a fact.  Some of the more cynical yetis Gana hand around claimed the point of young yetis leaving their village for a week was to give them a taste of what being alone was really like.  Gana could tell them it couldn't be, being away from the tribe was cut off from the ancestors and love that even space couldn't take away from a yeti with a tribe.

Gana pushed the thought out of her mind.  Karuna was the person she needed to protect now.  Even if he didn’t want her protection: especially since he didn’t want her to help him generally.  Over the last few days, while whittling and settling into her new home, Gana decided Karuna was an idiot.  Even though the boy obviously had not been trained well in combat.  Karuna had gone out on his own from the confines of his village without any weapons not once but a few times, and Gana wasn't counting when he worked in the field.  It seemed the enemy had neglected to teach Karuna common survival skills, which should have been obvious to Gana from the beginning since Karuna tracked her down after she had attacked him.

Since Karuna lacked common sense, Gana was never leaving Karuna alone ever again.   Instead the small yeti kept her eyes and other senses open almost constantly for any sign of Karuna leaving the city.  Gana's system wasn’t perfect.  She’d need to devise away to listen in on the villagers and keep up with Karuna's movements without alarming them.  The enemy village was even bigger than she first suspected.  While the three story buildings were all packed tightly together, the village had terraces setup for farming that spanned at least a mile down the mountain.  Gana would have thought the village was too high to up the mountain for anything to grow, but Gana had never learned much about farming.  It was an enemy thing.  The only thing she knew about it was its name, what it looked like, and that on a raid she should freeze and destroy the plants.

The weather certainly was hot enough to grow stuff, despite the high altitude.  It was easier to breathe so far down the mountain.

So, the small yeti would keep her eyes and ears peeled for trouble, and she’d protect Karuna's farming village. If Karuna left its safety and went beyond the village walls, Gana would follow him.  Maybe he just didn’t want Gana in his village, but would let her openly follow him out on the roads.  Gana could protect him better if she wasn’t trying to be sneaky and keep out of his line of sight.  Plus, as long as Karuna didn’t describe her armor in detail, she could pass herself off as an enemy.  While Gana was a little taller than Karuna, her armor was bulky enough that she could be mistaken for a male of his kind since enemy females were oddly small next to the male enemy counterparts. 

Gana kept low to the ground as she hunted.  The spear in her hand helped her settle her nerves as she crept across a relatively flat part of the mountain that was covered in tall grass.  The small yeti smiled as she felt the cool air through her face mask.  She’d been able to steal some tinted goggles from the trash.  Gana didn’t have to look through a slit of cloth to see where she was going anymore, and she was able to stay cooler since the cool air her body created was kept trapped where the goggles were.  The grass crunched under her feet, and she debated walking differently, letting her steps become so light that Gana could sneak up on her prey easier.  But yaks weren’t that aware of their surroundings anyway.

The small yeti found a pond as she was tracking and was tempted to stop and wash her clothes.  Her clothes had started to feel disgusting against her skin and smell, and the cold water would help wake her up and put some pep in her step, but in the end, Gana continued on her way.  She could bathe another day.  It was bad enough she was gone all day without knowing if Karuna planned on leaving the safety of his village, but she shouldn't be away from the village during for very long.  It was already late in the afternoon.

Instead Gana only stopped for a quick drink of water, and filled a flask she had stolen from the enemy, so she didn't have to waste power pulling water from the air every time she wanted a drink.  The water turned to ice in her mouth, and then slipped down her throat.  Iced water felt amazing helping to cool down and sent pleasant shivers through her body.  But she forced herself not to dally and continue tracking her prey.  It wasn’t long after the small yeti started finding signs of a pack of yaks.  Yaks were one of the easiest beasts to track.  They left plenty of mess behind them and the manure wasn’t was still warm and soft.  They also left deep tracks in the dirt, tended to pull up the grass, and leave traces of fur wherever they went.

Unfortunately the herd Gana was tracking was depressingly small.  In truth, her former tribesmen would steal from the enemy when they felt they could get away with it.  The enemy yaks tended to be plumper and juicier.  In those instances then didn't need a special celebration for they to eat yak meat.

As  Gana stalked toward the herd and saw that one yak had separated from the of the herd.  The small yeti smiled grimly, breathing in deeply to saturate her lungs with cold air and boost her natural power.  Gana adjusted her grip on the spear and started to move forward with deadly purpose.  She kept as low to the ground as she could.  The yak appeared to tense and pause in it chewing as if it sensed Gana coming for it.  Then the beast snorted, shaking its head and eating.  Gana took that moment to attack.  She dug her spear as deeply as she could into the yak's side and crashed her weight and body into the attack.  The beast bucked and cried, but  she held on without losing her grip.  Distantly Gana could hear the rest of the herd stampede away, but Gana's concentration would not be broken.

Her ribs were jarred once as the beast tried to roll over.  Gana pushed away the pain and pushed the spear deeper into the yaks body, delivering the death blow.

The beast crashed to the ground.  It wasn't quite dead, but it was only time before death claimed it.  The yaks' chest rose and fell harshly as it tried to cling to life even as blood pumped out and its eyes slowly became closesly.  Gana removed her spear from the beast and then finished the creature off.

Gana looked over her kill, a sense of accomplishment ran through her body.  She felt a smile pull at her stitches.  She leaned over grabbed the carcass, and started to drag it back toward Karuna’s village.  Gana briefly contemplated keeping the yak for herself.  Prepared correctly, yak meat really was very succulent.  The cook of their tribe used to heat the meat up just a little bit before freezing it.  The smoky taste was surprisingly good if a bit foreign, but Gana pushed the idea out of her mind.  She had killed the yak for Karuna, to help him get back into good graces with his tribe. 

The sun had only just begun to set when Gana reached the gates to Karuna's village.  Two enemy warriors with sticks strapped to their backs started to walk towards her when she started to get close.  The small yeti figured Karuna had told his people what her armor looked like, and it was better to play it on the safe side then be killed by those she was now trying to protect.  Even though the warriors didn’t look that strong, all of the enemy looked small to her compared to yetis she was used to seeing and there was plenty of proof they had killed her kind despite their size.  Gana stopped, the warriors’ posture relaxed, but they kept walking forward.  So, the small yeti threw the yak at them.  The warrior removed their sticks and started to aim at Gana, but the small yeti had already turned on her heels and was running away.  It wasn’t that hard to figure out the yak was a gift.  Karuna would vouch for her, and only an idiot would waste yak meat, so it wasn't like her gift would go to waste. 

The sky was darkening by then, and Gana changed direction and headed out for the pond.  Karuna was an idiot, but he was still alive, so the small yeti was sure he wouldn’t leave his village at night. 

By the time Gana got to the pond, night had truly fallen.  Gana lifted her head toward the sky briefly to let the rays of moon encase her before she stripped down to her under armor.  Once disrobed, she carefully cleaned the grit and blood from her armor, and then reinforced the ice on the armor using waster from the pond and a boost of power from the moon.  Quite a bit of the ice had melted away in the last few days, and she hadn't been able to find the will to fix or stop the melting. 

Unfortunately Gana's control over her element had been diminished since being thrown from the tribe.  Her most useful asset, the ability to form shields and dagger during battle had been severely limited.  It had been hard to make the icebox for the bear meat the other day over a period of time under serene circumstances.  Before Gana had made ice shields and frozen animals with hardly a thought.  Thankfully her power in general, under the cold light of the moon, she was able to reinforce the ice on her armor with little trouble with water from the pond. 

The small yeti leaned back when she was done with her task to bask in the moonlight.  It felt like forever since she had time to bathe in the light of the moon.  A chill ran through Gana's body as the moonlight sunk into her.  The very air seemed to be creeping into her bones and lifting her spirit toward the moon.  She let the white rays play over her shoulders, she even freed her hair so that it fell down her back.  The light playing and teasing the colors.

After the moon had traveled some ways across the sky, Gana returned to cleaning and scrubbed her face mask as well as she could.  The blue blood seemed to have stained the mask for the most part, so she gave up getting the stains out and just hoped her washing made it was clean enough.  Once Gana was done, she slipped into the pond, ripples spreading out as she submerged herself.  Gana surfaced a few second later further in the pond, and took a deep breath.  The water around Gana froze and turned into ice crystals around her body.  The cold water was doing her wonders.  She felt like she could freeze the entire world as she then lazily swam through the increasingly cooler pond.

Gana smiled and let her body drift on the top of the water.  She watched her hair spread out on the surface of the water, swishing and undulating as she lazily moved her arms across the ice.  The hair reflecting the moon light was all white, the colorful underside hidden by the darkness of the bottom of the pond.  Gana laughed, her stitches pulling as her lips tried to part.  She then curled into a ball and let her body dip to the bottom of the pool of water, frozen flakes of ice chipping off her body and floating to the surface as she submerged herself deeper and deeper.  Gana turned and stretched out her legs, her feet sinking deep into the mud, the thick top layer of muck squelching between her toes and freezing to her ankle.

The stitches on her mouth still hurt to touch, and Gana was honestly surprised that the area hadn’t become infected.  Getting meat past them had been difficult, and every time she chewed, her own blood would drip down her face and mix with the meat.  Now Gana carefully rubbed between the stitches, using her finger and the water to encourage some of her natural healing energies to that area, hoping it was enough to get rid of any infections that had been building.  There had been a time when Gana contemplated cutting the leather thread and unlacing her mouth.  The process of pulling the thread back out would have been painful to, but no more than it had been to receive them in the first place.

But no.  Her tribesmen former tribesmen had stitched her mouth closed for a reason.  Maybe it would be easier to survive if her mouth wasn't stitched closed; but the small yeti had already disgraced her people, she would not make it worse by going against tradition.  Gana knew there had to be a reason that they hadn’t killed her.  Maybe it was because she was small, and a small yeti was a sign from the ancestors.  When a small yeti born, it prophesized that big events and changes were fated in the future.  Maybe the tribe thought that killing her would have been disrespectful towards their ancestors.

That didn’t matter anymore Gana reminded herself.  She wasn’t part of the tribe.  They were no longer her family and she had no ancestors.  According to tradition, since she had been thrown from the tribe, Gana was to think of herself as never having ancestors or tribesmen.  It was hard to swallow, but she had to accept her punishment.  The life as a yeti, in a cave, living on her own was her reality now, and she was Karuna’s held her life in his hand.  She had to protect the boy, which meant she had to keep trying to fit meat slices between her stitches and keep herself alive.  It was time to stop being depressed.  Gana needed concentrate on adjusting to her new life: to living in the heat with stitches in her mouth and no one to love and call family. 

She had no tribe.  She only had an enemy (or whatever he was) and he didn’t even really like her.

When Gana finally forced herself out of the water, she was chilled to the bone.  Best of all, her clothes were almost completely frozen.  Gana shivered in pleasure.  She loved the feeling of clothes right after they were washed.  It could almost be overwhelmingly cold in the right circumstances.

Little pleasures.  She could still find the little pleasures in life.

-A-B-B-Y-B-O-M-I-N-A-B-L-E

The next day Gana woke up content and feeling reenergized.  She stretched her arms with a pop while trying to hold back a yawn.  As a moment later, a cry split the air and Gana flinched and stood, making sure to adjust her mask so that no enemies could see her skin.  She hoped nothing bad had happened.  Maybe the villagers were just thankful for the yak and were trying to call her to join their tribe.  But Gana decided it was better to play it safe and stay out of sight completely for the time being.  Another yell split the air, and Gana grabbed her spear and kept her head hidden in the shrubbery as she snuck out of the cave.  The cave was a little elevated from the village, though the tree and brushes hid it from sight.

It turned out to be a good thing Gana had kept hidden.  Even from a distance,  Gana could sense the tense movement and alarm in the enemies' formation as their warriors scoured the land.  Gana was about to leave her cave when she heard the telltale voice of sentries.  Probably some enemies from the village.  The footsteps were too soft for yetis, but too clumsy for an animals.  Gana felt herself sigh in relief.  She did not believe that she could fight her own people.  It wouldn't be possible, not even if it was for Karuna and honorable for her to do so.  No, she had shied from killing Karuna who was the enemy.  How would she ever be able to kill a fellow yeti?  Then again, what would it say about her if she _was_ able to kill another yeti? 

No, that had to be impossible.

“Where did he go?” asked a voice close to her cave.  Gana held her breath.  The enemy was a good yard from the cave, if he actually used his eyes, he would find it.  Thankfully, he seemed more interested in talking to his companion then doing her job.  Plus, the enemy was notoriously bad at seeing in the dark, and the sun had just started to rise the sky as a yellow orange mist. 

“He just headed into the hills after throwing the yak,” said the second enemy, his voice almost cracking.  Gana tried to see him more closely but remain hidden from sight.  The second enemy sort of looked like one of the guards from the night before.

“Are you sure it’s the yeti Karuna has been talking about?” asked the first enemy.

“He was no bigger than a man, yet he was able to throw an entire yak,” said the second enemy. “If Karuna is right, this is a yeti from the top of the mountain.  They’re not known for their ability to negotiate or show basic empathy and humanity.  I’m surprised the boy didn’t end up dead.”

“We’ll find the yeti and hand him over to Abominable’s tribe.  He’ll know how to deal with it,” said the first enemy.  Gana decided she'd heard enough and slunk back into her cave.  So the rival yeti tribe had some sort of truce worked out with the enemy.  They really were traitors.  Though, that would be hypocritical of Gana to point out.  Gana was planning on protecting the enemy herself.  That, and the enemy still didn't trust her.  Somehow the gift Gana had given them only antagonized them.

The enemy moved on, presumably searching for her.  Gana snuck out of her cave.  She needed to put some distance between herself and the village for a little while.  She would also have to wait to return until everything died down, and she was able to effectively kept tabs on Karuna.  Hopefully he wouldn't kill himself while she was gone.

It turned out that almost all the male enemies from the village were looking for her.  Gana put her ability to hide and blend into her environment to the test.  It was hard, Gana had trained to blend in with snow and ice, not grass and flowers.  The small yeti found herself by the pond again, and then instantly had to hide as she saw yetis combing the area.  Not the yetis from her tribe, but ones that she assumed were from Abominable’s tribe.  She ended up climbing up a small terrace, heading for the thick brush.

“You.” Gana’s heart jumped into her throat.  She turned to see Karuna standing behind her.  Tension fled her body quickly, and she almost laughed.  It would figure that he would find her when no one else could. “Abominable said that you hadn’t gone to him.  Are you here to change that?  What was with the yak last night?  Did Abominable lie to us?”

Gana reached to grab Karuna and stop him from wasting more breath.  The silly boy was talking so much that even if she could talk, he was leaving no space between his words for her to answer him.

Amazingly, Karuna actually stopped talking when she touched him.  Gana tried to think of the best way to tell him what was going on.  So, with the few signs she had, she tried to explain to Karuna that she had gone hunting to replace the meat he had supposed to have gotten and she was pretty sure his tribesmen had misinterpreted her intentions.

“What?  I thought yetis spoke Yetish,” said Karuna in confusion.  Gana let her hands fall to her side.  How was she supposed to explain things to Karuna if she couldn’t speak?  She rolled on the balls of her feet. Suddenly Karuna grabbed her in a hug, and she had to consciously stop herself from throwing him off her.  He was fragile.  Gana was lucky she hadn’t broken him when she had attacked him that first day.  Though, her life would have been simpler if Karuna's neck had just snapped by mistake. 

“Alright, so you’re mute, and I’m an insensitive jerk.  Who’s hugging another guy,” Karuna instantly removed his hands, and skipped backward. “Sorry, my best friend is a girl.”

Gana had no idea what that meant, so she just crossed her arms and took a step away from him to help make herself more comfortable.

“Okay, first question.  Are you part of Abominable’s tribe now?” he asked.  Gana shook her head and made a cutting motion across her neck.

“You’re afraid they’ll kill you?” he asked.  Gana nodded. “Ok, I guess that makes sense.  Your tribes have different, ah, philosophies.  I think.  Are you still part of your tribe?  I mean, you’re kind of far from it, and you're not killing me on sight.  Unless you're here as some sort of ambassador.”

Gana shook her head.  Hadn't she already answered these questions when they walked to Karuna's village?  Karuna smiled and hit her on the shoulder. “Great, well, I mean...  You're not an ambassador right?  Great, I mean, I'm sorry about your tribe, but I think it’ll make my village feel better if you're no longer associated with that tribe.” Gana wasn’t sure.  Would his village believe that she had been thrown out of her tribe just on Karuna’s word?  It seemed farfetched, especially if he didn’t have proof.  Gana pushed her hands into the sleeves of her armor.  She could probably prove that she wasn’t lying by showing the crosses on her hands or the stitches closing her mouth, but that would also prove what a coward she was.

“Alright, was the yak…” Karuna seemed to search around for a yes or no question. “Was it meant to be a thank you?”

Gana shook her head.  Karuna bit his lip and his brow furrowed in thought. “Wait yeti culture, I saved you, so does that mean that I own you?” he asked.

Gana nodded.  Karuna tesned and the shook his head. “I can’t.  No.  Listen, I saved you by accident, and I’m human.  This would be complicated enough if you were from Abominable’s tribe, but you're from the tribe that periodically attacked on the other side of the mountain.  You can’t hang around my village.  Go to Abominable’s.  Listen, they’re right over there.  I can introduce you right now.”

Gana shook her head.  Karuna’s expression hardened. “Come on.  I’m sure he’ll understand.  I mean, you got in trouble ‘cause of me, right?”

There was a moment of awkward silence as Karuna made a point to wait for Gana's answer.  Gana finally nodded.  What he claimed was close to the truth, and she didn't know how to explain her situation without using sign language.  For a moment, Gana wondered if she should be following his orders and give herself to Abominable and instead of arguing over with the enemy, or as he called himself, human that saved her life.  Then she dismissed the idea.  Karuna had walked without a care into yeti territory.  Maybe his village had a deal with the yetis, but the treaty was unnatural.  Gana had always known yetis were natural enemies with well the enemy.  Karuna shouldn’t just walk into their territory.  This was all the proof she needed that he couldn’t take care of himself.  She needed to keep an eye on him then.  So she refused to commit suicide and give herself to the Abominable.

Kurana grabbed her arm. “Don’t be ridiculous.  You can’t live out here by yourself.  Yetis belong together,” the boy said.  Gana growled at him and jerked her arm out of hands.  What did an enemy know about yetis? “Don’t be stubborn.”

Gana shook her head.  Kurana tighten her grip on her and tried to force her toward the rival tribe.  Gana continued to shake her head and held her ground.  Then the stupid boy tackled her.  Gana caught Karuna and threw him against the ground.  He hit the dirt hard, and after a moment of lying there with his mouth gaping and his eyes wide, he started coughing.  Gana gasped and took a step away from him in horror.  How was he so fragile?  Her people had been enemies with his people since the humans had first started to encroach on the yetis' mountains from the lower land.  How could the enemy be this fragile and still be alive?  Of course, Gana had known they weren’t as powerful as her physically.  That’s why they needed the exploding sticks.  But she hadn’t realized just how fragile they were.

With a shake of her head to chase away those thoughts, Gana ran forward to help the human up.  When Karuna saw her coming for him, he backed away, looking scared.  Gana froze.  He choked.

“Listen, you need to go.  You’re only going to hurt our village,” Kurana wheezed.  Gana took a step away from him.  He looked almost guilty for a second, and then his expression hardened. “Leave?  I never want to see you again.”

Gana followed his order and turned and ran away.  She went back up the mountain, and spent the rest of the day hiding out.  When night fell, the small yeti walked back toward her cave.  Her thoughts chasing each other when the small yeti got there, there was no sign of anyone having touched her meager belongings.  Gana curled up in a ball and shook her head.   Before this, she could have believed that maybe, just maybe, she had a chance to live with someone even if it was the enemy.  Maybe it wouldn't have been ideal, but she didn’t want to be alone.  Being alone hurt.

This was horrible.  Never before had Gana felt so alone.  It was like the week where the girls in her tribe that had yet to go through the trials went off to fend for themselves.  It was a week that she always looked forward to and dreaded.  On one hand, she got to be free of the stifling twenty-four seven presence of the tribe, because while she did love her tribe, after some time they started grating on her nerves.  On the other hand, when out on her own, she lost the connection to the spirit of the tribe, and it wasn't long before she was homesick.  Being caste from her tribe was ten times worse.  At least during that week she knew she would soon return to her tribe and the ancestors to pay to when the loneliness overwhelmed her.

Gana hated being alone.  She wanted a cold body, or a warm body in Karuna’s case, next to her.  As long as it was breathing, she didn’t care.  A tear trickled down her cheek.  It froze against her skin, and she tried to tell herself that it was nothing.  She could survive this.  She had to survive.  She had to find some honor and protect Karuna.  Making sure he lived was her only goal and meaning her life. 


	4. What's in a Name?

For the next few days Gana had to be extra careful not to be seen.  The humans continued their search for her, though their efforts seemed to quickly deteriorate, and they never found her cave.  The small yeti spent her time working out the best way to eat her bear meat.  It took almost an entire day to consume enough food so she could make it through the day.  In the end, Gana decided she still had some details work to out since blue blood still ended up dripping down her chin.  Even though Gana had decided that she’d cried enough for one lifetime, she couldn’t help but let a few fall during the day.

Weak, she was so weak. 

However, by the next day she had pushed those emotions into the sun to burn away.  Sitting in a cave and moaning over all she had lost and her little aches and pains did nothing.  She needed to get up and actually do things.  It was pointless to do anything less.  Now she would do better. 

So, when the villagers ceased searching for her, Gana went to explore her new territory.  She was careful to stay out of sight as she made sure to memorize every crevice in the land.

Summer ended up being hell.  Gana couldn’t help but sigh in relief when the nights cooled off. That was usually when she went to look around the area.  Unfortunately she went through a small growth spurt during that time.  The small yeti was sure that she was now taller than Karuna.  She wondered if he was tall for a human.  He’d seemed to be sure about the same size as the guards.  So, probably he was just average height for a human. The humans went out in droves to the fields and didn't leave until the sun started to set.  Gana even saw Karuna helping with the harvest.

Actually, human behavior was interesting in general.  The yetis Karuna's tribe were in contact with had come to trade once during the change of seasons, that’s why she knew what the humans called themselves.  Though admittedly, she’d gotten a little too close when spying on them.  She had been afraid that they would attack Karuna.  It turned out the yetis really were in good standing with them.  It was weird to see humans and yetis getting along, treating each other, but like equals. 

She’d left after the yetis had started inquiring about her and the humans got upset and defensive.

Now she watched from the sidelines as the humans harvested their crop.  Some of them had metal things that helped them that they would get inside to do the work.  But for the most part it was just the humans working from sunrise to sunset.  It was amazing how much they had in their fields they took back to their village.  Amazing how much stuff from the earth humans needed.  Gana had only really eaten meat before.  It wasn’t always clear to her why it worked. 

Karuna was out in the fields again when Gana snuck out to watch them.  She finally had seen the girl Karuna had talked about when he told her to leave him alone.  While Karuna wasn’t alone while he worked, he didn’t gravitate towards groups like the others did.  Most of the time humans his age hung out with other people their age, but while he was friendly, he’d always end up apart from them with only one or two humans to socialize with as he worked. 

But he always went to talk with this one human girl, about his age, who came sporadically to work with him.  She was interesting.  Actually, all human women were interesting.  While the only difference between yeti men and women were that women had softer edges and carried their babies.  Human females also had these differences, but on top of that, they also seemed to be physically weaker than their male counterparts.  More than that, the one Karuna hung out with one seemed even more frail then the rest.  She only helped with the harvesting sporadically, and was often seen being dropped off and picked up by an old human with a crocked back. 

The girl didn't even really work.  She just giggled and gossiped with Karuna.  Gana didn’t like her.  She didn’t seem to be doing any actual work.  The small yeti also admitted herself, eventually, that she was just a little jealous.  He accepted this girl no problem, but he acted so dismissive of her.  He didn’t send the human girl away when she talked to him. 

Gana blew cold air into her hands.  Some afternoons could still get really warm, and she could feel herself sweating into her armor.  Really, she couldn’t wait for winter; at least she’d be able to properly reinforce her armor again.  Not that she needed it.  Her tribe was apparently the only yetis still at war with the humans, well, at least the only ones on this mountain anyway.  There was the town, a wall, and another town to get through before they would get to Karuna's village.  Really, the chances of an attack here were slim. 

Of course, without the threat of attack, and days and nights spent watching humans meant that Gana was bored silly.  In the end the small yeti mostly just sat around watching the humans work and trying not to fall asleep.  She was also careful to keep up on any gossip she could actually catch that involved her.  Apparently the humans did still suspect that she hung around the area and even sent out a scout to check for signs of her at least once a week.  Their scouts were pathetic.  If yetis in her village had been as incompetent as them they would have been sent back to learn from a trainer until they were up to snug again. 

Gana sighed and closed her eyes, resting her head against the stone behind her.  It was starting to get dark.  The villagers would be packing up soon.  She’d just seen Karuna leave the field.  Gana wondered how much longer she could keep this spying up.  The lulls in fights she got into were too long, and she'd only got to kill a couple of wild animals and spent a band of humans that had been conspiring to attack the small shack on the outskirts of the human village Karuna's girl lived in.  She missed the blood and the adrenaline that came from a good fight.

Now she just felt like a slug.  A useless slug. 

Gana drew in a deep breath of air through her cloth mask, the freshness and crispness of the air filling her steaming lungs.  Frost, and not the baby frost they’d gotten a couple of nights before.  This one was going to be a true frost.  Perhaps Gana would sleep outside.  She wanted to feel the frost coat on her skin.  It would help rejuvenate her after such a horribly hot summer.  Maybe even help lift her spirits.  The cold would do wonders for getting her energy up, and her blood through her veins again to perk up her spirits.  She just felt so drained. 

Yes, a frost was coming.  In this time of Gana's life, she would take her little pleasures wherever she could get them.  Actually, she didn’t really feel like moving at all, though she should.  She couldn’t really lay out in the open and not get caught by the humans.

As Gana pushed herself onto her elbows, a thought struck her.  Yes, a hard frost would do wonders for her, but vegetations usually did in extreme cold. Gana ran into the field.  The moon was shining bright to light her way.  The small yeti was sure that the humans hadn’t finished harvesting what they needed to survive the winter.  She quickly fell to the ground, looking around.  She had no idea what they were, but there was no way any of their plants would survive this frost.  Gana didn’t eat much besides meat.  Living without meat didn’t sound appetizing; yetis were known to eat the meat of their enemies when times were hard. It was practical.  But humans apparently needed this vegetation to live, and they needed enough of it not only to feed the entire village, but to grow new crops in the spring.

Everything looked the same to her.  Still, she couldn’t let Karuna starve because his people were stupid and didn’t know how to tell when a good frost was coming to wipe out their food supply.  She dug into the earth and immediately had to stop, the ground under her fingers hardened and froze, killing the plant she had been trying to save.  The small yeti sat up and looked down on her hands, wondering what she could.  She couldn’t tell Karuna.  She didn’t know where in the village he lived, and she was pretty sure the humans would just let her stroll into their village.

A distant sound went off, a crack that ripped through the air and had her pause in her inspection.

Pain tore through her shoulder. Gana stood up and ran away from where the sound came from on instinct as pain roared through her.  Her training called for her to retaliate with ice and snow, but Gana resisted the urge, instead trying to make sense of what was going on.  She took the spear from her back, and the sound from before, the bang and ripping right before something tore through her shoulder, echoed from the village.  Gana summoned all her strength and created a wall of ice.  As she turned to retreat, feet digging into the dirt as she ran, she could hear things knocking deep into the icy wall she had created.

Cries of outrage followed her, and it took her a while to realize that running to her cave would only get her killed.  The small explosions of sounds had stopped for the most part, but she could faintly see the darkness of blue blood on her hand when she had held it to where her pain emitted from.  Some part of her told her she’d received worse wounds, but these humans were so weak, it was hard to believe they had the power to rip into her shoulder with any sort of weapon.  At least now Gana understood why it was so hard for her past tribe to kill off such weak appearing creatures.

It wasn’t normal, whatever it was they had wounded her with.  The projectile was small, obviously, but fast and effective.  It ripped deeply into her shoulder, and Gana could now see how it could be used to kill.  If it was aimed at the right place, it would mean instant death, and while the bullet only pierced her skin, it didn’t go all the way through. 

Gana only started to slow when she reached the wall.  With a sigh, she leaned against the rock.  Perhaps that was not the most ideal location, especially if they patrolled the wall, but she needed a second to calm her racing heart and figure out what to do next. 

The cold nipped at her, calling for her to take off her stuffy armor and let in the cold.  It was tempting.  She hadn’t packed the armor recently with snow and a good deal of the reinforced ice had melted away, Gana had been planning on adding the reinforcement during the next frost, or when she took another dip into the pools.  Actually, what she really needed was an entirely new set of armor, though that would take time to create, and wouldn't be really as well crafted as what she was currently be weaving.  With a sigh, she let her head hit the cool rock, she could already feel the cold air setting on the mountain, but she was having a little trouble turning it into anything after using so much of her energy to throw up that ice wall.  Odd, when she was a part of the tribe, she could make a dozen ice walls without losing a beat.  Could have gone to the village if she wanted. 

Just the reminder of what she did was enough to get Gana up and moving again.  She was such an idiot.  All she had wanted to do was help the humans, but because of her cold nature, she had ended up killing the plants when she had thrown up her ice shield.  And the icing on top was only things the village knew about her were that she had tried to kill one of its members, had thrown a yak at the guards, refused to join the tribe of yetis they had an understanding with, and killed some of their crop.  No wonder they were trying to find and kill her. 

That was pathetic.  Wrong and pathetic, and Abbey had no idea how to even start going about trying to fix it.  Why was everything so hard now?  Every time she tried to do anything of real importance, it just blew up in her face.  What would happen when Karuna actually got in trouble?  Would she get him killed?

Gana shook her head and determinedly started walking forward again.  She needed to stop worrying.  What happened had happened.  Now she needed to deal with the after effects.  Doubting and second guessing everything she did would make her a pathetic mess. She acknowledged she made a mistake, but this mistake wasn’t going kill her.  She would learn and move forward and continue to protect.  Plants were very sensitive to cold, even to the natural coldness of her skin.  The townspeople really didn’t trust her at all.  She needed to either make sure never to be open like she had been ever again, or try to find sneaky ways to save villagers so they got used to her.

Of course, after so long watching and dealing with rouge humans, Gana was finding she wasn’t as sneaky as she thought she was.  That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  There had always been a delicate balance in her studies and how she adjusted what she learned to her size between adjusting and being more subtle and becoming cowardly in her actions.  In her mind, all her actions after she had banished had gone over that line.  At the beginning, she had thought she would do anything to protect Karuna, now she knew better.  It was probably because they were so small with muted senses and weak bodies despite their size.  That was the reason humans resorted to such cowardly and gutless means to get what they wanted. 

Still, Karuna wasn’t sure any longer why she couldn’t kill humans.  She had no problem with beasts, and those creatures were just acting on their instincts.  Humans on the other hand, they were reasoning creatures whose instincts seemed to lead them to attack everything around them in both overt and backstabbing manners, Gana still remembered the plotting robbers, but she even saw humans in the village attacking cruelly aggressive toward each other.  Gana had seen bullying in yeti culture, but it was tame compared to some of things she’d seen and heard the humans doing and saying against their fellow humans.  They just didn’t seem to have the same unbreakable bond as yetis.  Perhaps because they all had so many different jobs.  Gana noticed that while the yetis in her tribe shared menial jobs, humans specialized in them.  Because they spent so much time with only a small group of humans, they made bonds with those humans and excluded all other humans from their circles.  Gana understood specializing in healing and maybe management of all the separate jobs that needed to get done, but not easy ones that needed next to no training.

Getting used to human culture was tricky.  Gana supposed that since she was basically the guardian and tied to a human through a life debt.  It was good that, despite human failings, she could not bring herself to kill them.  Karuna didn’t seem to be embroiled in all that drama anyway, but he tended to be by himself.  Gana had heard rumors about the training healer girl's temper the one that came to see Karuna sometimes, but Gana had decided to withhold on judging him until she actually met the human girl.

Gana had almost passed the tree line when she finally stopped.  The ground was covered by a thin layer of ice and snow.  It had been so long since she had really felt ice and deep freeze against her blue skin.  A couple of thin clouds littered the sky, but the full moon shown out bright, bathing the land in its light and reflecting off scattering of white snow, lighting up the area in soft clear light that was so much more comfortable to Gana’s eyes then the bright rays of the sun.  Gana slipped off her fur boots first and needed to one of the snow drifts, relishing in how it molded against her feet. 

A shiver of pleasure ran down her spine and Gana gasped a little, the pull of her lips stopping the sound short and almost killing the moment.  Gana pushed that thought out of her head and concentrated on enjoying the moment and the biting cold that nipped at her feet.  Gana quickly started to strip.  While her armor held the cold further down the mountain, here her armor was hot and bothersome.  She took off her outer clothes, careful of the ice that needed reinforcement before she returned to her cave the next day.  Now she worked on first slipping off the bottom part of her face mask.  She then worked on the cloth head gear, briefly pausing over the hard ice chainmail that still held together and needed some work before it fell apart.

With a sigh she let it go.  The cold air and moon beams were calling to her, and she stripped down to her breast band and loincloth.  There was a nice cover of ice, probably a small pool of water for a while, now frozen solid.  Gana walked to it and spread her body on it, face looking up toward the moon and stars. 

As Gana closed her eyes, she felt a small groan escape her lips. Her whole body seemed to be overheated.  She hadn’t realized how overheated she felt.  As she lay under the moon, soaking in the cold.  She could almost feel her blood turning from slush into living ice.  Her bones seemed to become stronger.  The sweat that had been coating her skin for the last month, froze, becoming a flaky crust of ice coating her skin. 

Gana contemplated cutting off her hair as close to the roots as she could.  She brought her hand up to her hair, over the months, with so little time to untangle her hair, it had become longer and knotted at the base of her neck.  Gana pulled strength into her body from the cold and then she pushed down with her magic, her body sinking into the ice as she manipulated it to suck her in.  Her hair flowed through the ice like Gana had melted it to water.  She carefully started dealing with the worse of the tangles, running her fingers through the strands and then picking at the places the hair had become almost impossibly tangled.

She was so caught up in her grooming that when she finally opened her eyes, she almost jumped out of her skin.

It took Gana precious seconds to push herself out of the ice and grab the spear she’d left too far from her from her body.  The yeti that had snuck up on her watched her calmly.  His grip on his club was loose, and he even seemed to be entertained by her scrambling.  Gripping her spear, trying to figure out how to be ready for a fight, but not goad him into it.  Gana felt her heart beat faster in her chest.  She tried to snarl, fear pounding through her veins, but the leather pulled at her lips and she felt blood surge onto her tongue. 

“What other marks did your tribe give you when you were thrown out?” asked the yeti.  He had a deep voice and was one of the tallest yetis Abby had ever seen.  She couldn’t stop the glare that wrinkled her forehead.  Slowly, not sure if it was a trick, she let go of her spear with one hand, and showed the underside of her hand to him.

The crosses on her hands, while they had scabbed over fairly quickly were as horrible looking as the day had been made.  Maybe it was part of the ritual.  The scars being more important than her pain or bleeding to death, after all, she was sure that normal leather would have started to fray after a while, especially where it rubbed up against her lower fangs.  

The big yeti started walking toward her.  Gana took a hesitant step back.  The yeti raised an eyebrow and there was a second where Gana was tempted to attack him.  It would be idiotic, on many levels, but he was definitely her nerves rubbing the wrong way.  She felt her body shake, as she tried to contain her nerves.  The yeti continued toward her and unwrapped her hand off her spear.  He traced the cross ripped into her skin. 

“So, which did you do?  Kill a member of your tribe or turn traitor and stab someone in the back?” asked the yeti, he laughed, but it wasn’t a nice sound.  Gana snarled and then couldn’t help the small expression of confusion that crossed her face.  How were those two things different?  It just sounded like the last one was just worse than the frost.  Though, maybe that was the point.  He probably figured she would be cowardly and backhanded in her actions because of her size. 

She wanted to snap that even with her size, if she found herself needing to take up attacks on a fellow tribesman, she would challenge him properly.  Perhaps her fighting style might be a little backwards, subtle, and misleading, but she would make her intentions clear. 

“I would have guessed it was your size,” said the yeti. “But they would have known about that years ago. Perhaps the tradition of your tribe are different then our old ones, but that doesn’t tell me what you did.”

Gana stared at him, unsure what to do.  She had a feeling that even if her mouth wasn’t sewn shut, she would have been tongue tied.  Gana had known the punishment for failing the test was death, but would he believe her if she said they made an exception?  And would that make any difference to him?  Yes, he had ties to the humans, but that didn’t mean he threw tradition out the window.  While his tribe might not kill humans anymore, he would probably see her inability to kill a human as a weakness, might even finish off her just to get rid of a weak link.

“Which is a problem.  My tribe’s greatest allies are the ones your harassing,” he said darkly.  Gana quickly slipped Gana's hand out of his grip before he could tighten his hold enough to trap her.  Still, he was steadily backing her up.  Even with the spear, she was no match for him. Instead she shook her head furiously. “The humans told us little, which we thought might be out of a sense of confusion about our culture and not wanting to step on toes, but it could simply be because of your inability to speak.”

Gana shrugged and the yeti sighed.  This whole not being able to talk thing really was starting to grate on her nerves.  Really, humans seemed to do it too much, and they endlessly wasted breath on inconsequential small talk that they seemed to think they had to participate in to stay allies with the other humans surrounding them.  Then it occurred to her.  This was a yeti, not some silly human who wasted too much breath and seemed to use body language as a secondary way to get their meaning across instead of the primary one. 

Gana slowly put the spear down beside her, which the yeti watched with the same, almost amused, expression.  Gana gulped and started with some simple signs.  The yeti almost immediately began shaking his head.  Gana let her hand fall to the side.  She thought for a second about getting her spear again, but just let it stand.  With a sigh, she stood straight, looking the other yeti in the eyes.  She had to lean her head back quite a bit to do so, but it was better than looking at her feet or his torso.  No more looking and being weak. 

“Are you in love with the human you’re stalking?” asked the yeti.  Gana grit her teeth, keeping her lips closed shut carefully. “Do you mean to protect him?”

Gana nodded, grasping onto someone besides Karuna knowing what she meant to do.

“They don’t want you there,” said the yeti.  Gana made a face.  She knew that already.  She could still feel where the bullet had gone into her shoulder.  She touched the area self-consciously, taking a step away from the yeti as he seemed interested in getting close to her.  He continued to watch her closely, and she shifted from foot to foot.  

Finally, he sighed.

“I’m guessing you don’t want to go back to me with my tribe?” the yeti asked.  Gana glared at him.  He didn’t want her to go with him anyway. “We told the humans that a frost was coming.  But, if you’re so insistent on sulking around their village, then keep your head down.  The humans aren’t found of you.”

Gana rolled her eyes and turned her back on him, picking up her spear and heading back toward her armor.  Maybe she was being extraordinarily rude, but she couldn’t really bring herself to care.  He could try to kill her; she was fast and had had plenty of time to soak up the freezing temperature around her had built her stores up, Gana was very good at manipulating ice.  If he actually tried to attack her, she would be able to get away at the very least.  It wasn’t really cowardly. She had no problem with him and was in no position to fight him.  She was within her rights to act cowardly if he choose to try and club her in the back.

When she started to look through her armor and add reinforcement.  The yeti sat beside her and helped her.  It took them almost the rest of the night.  Gana spent a lot of her time on the chainmail over her clothe head cover.  The small yeti strengthened the ice, trying to harden it.  She felt the moon ice at her neck.  She imagined it gave her power, while it fed into her she didn’t know if what she felt was only her own power, the moon’s, or if it allowed her a little bit of a connections to her old tribe’s power.

The yeti watched as she carefully pulled on the armor.  She had checked over his work herself.  Learning to make her own armor had been a basic skill that she had to learn while training to be warrior.  She wasn’t perfect, she was too young, but she had all the basics and just needed experience to hone her skills.

She looked back at the yeti, spear in hand as she lifted her face mask.  She already missed the night air, but the moon had already set.  After a moment she gave Gana a nod of thanks.

“If you ever are in good graces with the village, there’s a young man, Seth, who has learned our meditation techniques.  That will help with your control,” said the yeti.  Gana looked at him in confusion and titled her head to the side. “You’ll see.  Good luck Abbey.”

Gana faltered, taking a step back as she titled her head to the other side, but the yeti had already started to turn his back to her

“It’s what the boy has named you,” shouted the yeti over his shoulder.  He also muttered something under his breath, but it was too muffled for Gana to understand him. 

No, she had lost her name with her tribe.  Not just her tribe name, but her identity.  She had only continued to be Gana because, well, what else was she going to call herself?  Abbey was a better name for what she was now, more human.  A perfect name for a cowardly human servant.

Abbey sighed, shaking her head and heading into the hills.  This time she would stay out of the village’s way for a week or so.  The cold air called her.  Just a little higher and she would find herself in a small snowstorm, but knowing her luck it would turn rain when it reached Karuna’s door.  It was weird, either humans had a weird way of naming people, or they had figured out she was a girl.  Who knew.  It didn’t change anything anyway.  Human’s had to know that female yetis were not weak like human females.  After all, females and males had always fought side by side, to not use females in the field of battle would be a waste of resources. 

 


	5. Weak Creatures

Abbey still wasn't used to her new name.  She had to say it time and time again in her head until it was ingrained over her old name.  It was hard.  Gana was a part of her, the term itself sunk into her bones.  Abbey sounded clunky, and she was kinda sure that it was a play on ‘Abominable’ which would make the name disrespectful to use if she cared about her relationship with the tribe. 

The week of wandering had been a good way to relax her nerves.  She worried a little about Karuna, but not too much.  He seemed capably stupid.  He had somehow survived life for however long until she came along.  Granted, as soon as he met her he should have died, so Abbey could only attribute the fact he was alive to extraordinary luck.  And his luck would end eventually, but that didn’t mean that a week with her absence was going to make a difference.

She hoped.

So it wasn’t that surprising that after six days of enjoying the snow and being careful to not trespass to close to the summit and avoid any common hunting ground.  It had actually been rather thrilling.  She’d found a mountain giant to arm wrestle.  He had been a good sport in losing and had eagerly ate most of the snow leopard she’d killed in her travels.  She had spent time skinning and separating the parts of the animal.  It had been rather cathartic.  It had also helped calm her those last two days. 

The hunt had been exhilarating.  She hadn’t realized how much she had missed a good hunt.  When protecting the village she’d always been on the defensive, searching out only things that would serve to harm the human she protected.  More than that, hunting had become a burden in many ways.  Gana had almost felt guilty killing some of the predators she found, not sure if she could use all the parts or eat all the meat by herself.  Yes, her people were a violent race, but that was by necessity.  They lived in harsh climates, and there had always been rivals for the scarce meat and resources.  Yetis did not waste anything that they got because they strove tooth and nail to get and retain what they had won.

So Gana spent time getting off her high and wondering if she could go on one last hunt.  Gana could hardly remember the fight, taking the creature down and the blood rush that had spread through her veins like fire.  Being in the heat had apparently dampened her own instincts.  Now in the cold she was always on edge and always had the cold temperature to sharpen her mind.  Night had become her favorite time of day, and the moon called to her strength more than she had ever felt.  She needed to spend more nights in the open.  The moon wasn’t just her best way to draw power into herself, it was the closest thing she had to an ancestor.  It rested in her mind like the power of olds had, called and watched her like she was her child.

Abbey sighed.  Her name was Abbey.  Gana didn’t exist anymore.  Abbey’s ancestor was the moon, and only the moon.  She had no friends in the world, but she had under her protection a human.  The yetis at the top of the mountain were her enemies, but she would not disgrace her people by fighting them.  The Abominable tribe reluctantly put up with her. 

Abbey repeated this every time she slipped back into thinking of herself as Gana.  She wasn’t that yeti anymore.  For her own survival she couldn’t be that yeti anymore.  So she repeated it and repeated it into infinity until it drowned her alive.  A scattering of snow covered the ground by the village. 

The cave still hadn't been found.  Abbey found no signs around her overgrown bushes or any signs that her things had been moved, though the meat had melted and something had gotten into those, but she still had a good bit of meat strapped to her back, and she immediately froze the food and then went back to checking and cutting off the bad parts of the meat she had frozen, most of it was still good, but she wasn't eating something that the local wildlife had been nibbling on. She didn’t have to; unfortunately, some of her meat would go bad just because she couldn’t eat fast enough to preserve it.

After she had frozen her food, she carefully concealed it.  If the humans found her cave, they would destroy everything they found.  Abbey wouldn’t dare trying to dry her meat again.  That would only broadcast where she was. 

She then went about sorting the bones the snow giant hadn’t wanted and treating the snow leopards hide.  She had thought about making some more armor but dismissed the idea almost immediately.  Instead she thought about maybe attempting to make a battle canvas.  It wasn’t something she knew much about, but she would muddle through it, it would give herself to take her mind off things a couple of hours a day at the very least.  Abbey did like challenges after all.

And it actually did.  Abbey noticed less humans trespassing past their borders, and all their crops seemed to have been harvested while she was away.  Also, the Abominable tribe had come once more.  Abbey had dared a closer glance to them as they entered the city, though she had remained a respectable distance from the village.  She had been rather surprised to realize that the yeti she had met was the one leading the troop.  He had glanced her way at one point, and through the bit of interaction she saw he was in the position of some power.

At least she felt confident that the Abominable tribe wasn’t going to hunt her down. 

Which left the humans.  The humans did not like her.  At best, she’d overheard some ambivalent views on her presence and uninterest that she seemed to have disappeared.  At the worse they were sure the cold snap was all her fault, that she had caused the frost and that when she destroyed part of their crop she had malicious intent.  In fact, they were pretty sure the reason she hadn’t killed them all was the guards.

Abbey didn’t comment, obviously, but if she could she’d tell them the guard was a joke.  She had snuck around them plenty of times, going out into the field that night had been a mistake. 

Time slipped by again, now more comfortably with the rapidly cooling temperatures.  She spent a good deal of time casing the perimeter, listening for anything out of the ordinary.  In other words, she was bored silly but content. 

And then finally she felt it.  The change in temperature and general feel in the air made her smile and throw back her head in ecstasy.  Yes, not just a nice frost, this was going to be a storm.  Abbey took a deep breath in, letting the smell of the storm fill her lungs.  She hoped it was a heavy cover of snow.  She hadn’t gone for swim lately, and the armor had started to feel improbably constricting, grabbing onto her body and weighing heavy on her mind.  She didn’t even have to worry about the ice reinforcement melting as often. 

Abbey wondered absently wondered how long it had been since she had left her tribe.  Not a year, but the months had slipped by so quickly.  The hot temperature of her birth season becoming the freezing temperatures of the season of its opposite.  To the humans it was the end of December, apparently a time where they hung up sparkling lights, bright jewels, played the same music throughout the entire village with an upbeat tune.  It was called Christmas, and the humans seemed to have gone insane with whatever it meant with them.  They were manic. 

So time passed by slowly.  That night she spent all her time out in the open of her cave.  She even lowered her face mask and took off her boots.  The cold air nipped against her toes, face, and finger tips.  She slept on and off, her face was hot.  She was worried about infection setting in around the leather strips, but she had been relatively cool compared to the rest of the day, so it wasn’t a big worry for her.  With how cold it was, it would heal over nicely and the infection would go away in a couple of days. 

The canvas was coming along nicely.  She’d killed another leopard that came to close to village.  Which was good, she had ruined the first pelt, but this one she had tanned nicely.  But she was careful and also killed a bear nearby, it had gotten some sort of fever in it, and while it’s destination probably would have been closer to another settlement or the Abominable tribe.  Still, while she hadn’t been able to use the meat (madness fevers seeped into and contaminated the meat of the animals) the bones were actually good at warding, something her cave desperately needed, and the belt was good, though she ended up tempering it so it became like the blankets humans used.  It didn’t take her long to figure out they weren’t for her, the blanket quickly overheated her.

Still, maybe she could trap the cold underneath the blankets. 

When Abbey woke up it was snowing already.  It was just the beginnings to a flurry, little pieces of white floated through the air.  It was a slight dusting that could easily melt under the harsh rays of the sun.  Abbey reached up, feeling the snow fall and start to gather on her blue hand. 

A small smile touched her lips.  A blizzard, a perfect blizzard.  Who needed yetis when she had snow and cold that would seep into her bones and strengthen her bonds to the cold all around her.  Ancestors had been a distraction from the cold, truthfully.  Without them she finally appreciated all she was exposed to in her environment.  Actually, since she had spent so much time overheated, she now loved the cold even more. 

As the snow came down harder and harder, Abbey slipped back down her mask and then secured her spear to her back.  She danced under the gathering snow.  She left trails in the gathering drifts, that were quickly covered up by her spinning.  Yes, this is what she missed.  The harsh wind, the breath being stolen from her body as she danced and twirled.  Maybe it was impractical, but she allowed herself this time for pure enjoyment.  Karuna and his village had planned on spending their time inside.

The snow was beautiful, Abbey was careful to pay attention to where she was going and how close she got to the village.  She pulled in the snow around her and then threw it out.  For a moment it looked like the storm had halted, snowdrops frozen in the air.  Abbey jumped and hit the snowflakes as one by one they rustled and fell.  And then finally she released her hold on them and they fell harder than ever. 

Then she clumped around her, sticking harder to her clothes.  She would soon be a snowman.  She had heard and seen the humans representations of snowmen.  She liked the idea of them.  Maybe she would be one, though they seemed to be always smiling in the pictures.  Always smiling would be rather tiring.  Maybe she didn’t want to be a smile.  She didn’t want to always be smiling.

A cry broke the constant buzz of the storm.  Abbey listened as hard as she could, maybe her feet had crunched on the crisp snow, or maybe it was a small animal caught in the heavy winds and starting to get too cold to move.  Abbey shook her head.  She was going to enjoy herself, but she heard another cry.  Abbey sighed, letting her hands fall to her sides.  Really, she should put the poor thing out of its misery.  It was obviously too stupid to be alive and it wouldn’t live through the storm.

She dragged her feet through the snow that had accumulated.  She slipped the spear from her back, ready to deal the killing blow.  The snow made it hard to see through, but she didn’t need her eyes in the snow.  Still, whatever she was looking for was close to the ground, she couldn’t feel the snow was falling on them.  So a small animal then, though for a small thing, it did let loose a powerful cry of distress.

The yeti ended up tripping over the thing.  She looked back, turned out it wasn’t small, or an animal.  From the size and the way it was bundled, it was clearly human.  Abbey froze for a second, and then she kneeled down, her spear held defensively in her hands.  Her hands wandered around the human’s body, looking for the gun that most humans that left the safety of their city were apparently supposed to carry.  Still, the field wasn’t far from the village, and maybe she had wandered away in the first place, blinded by the storm. 

Abbey sighed.  Her fun in the snow was over.  She needed to get the girl somewhere out of the snow.  Humans needed warmth, and Abbey was sure, based on her observations, and the way the woman was now curled around herself and shivering, that these conditions could kill her.  Abbey lifted the girl and threw her over her shoulder.  The girl wasn’t that big, but she had the body shape that showed that she had reached maturity.  Abbey hoped going out in these conditions weren’t the human’s rite of passage.  Abbey still didn’t know what they did for that time. 

Abbey contemplated going to the village for a second, but just because the civilians were going to stay inside didn’t mean the guards were.  Snow storms were popular times for her, for the yeti tribe at the top of the mountain to come down and attack.  It wasn’t likely her tribe would come down during these times to attack, though there were very few instances that they would get past the first few villages.

So she couldn’t head for the village.  They were looking for a yeti attack; the ones that hated her were probably specifically looking for her and would shoot as soon as they saw her.  So Abbey headed back to her cave.  Her cave wasn’t the warmest area, but it was out of the snow.  Abbey brought her in.  She first wrapped the girl in the bear blanket, glad she’d experimented with the thing.  She also started putting together a fire.  She had made a fire only a couple of times before that.  The fire might be spiritually significant, but the smoke it created was dangerous in two ways: it was a beacon for anyone looking for her, and it also filled the cave with smoke.  Abbey could deal, she was used to thin air, but humans were not nearly as touch as yetis. 

Finally, she setup the fire.  She had thought about doing it near the mouth of the cave, but the back would hold the heat more and some snow was drifting in from the outside.  Abbey dragged the still shivering body over next to the fire.  She tried to be careful, setting up the woman’s body so she was close to the fire, but not so close the girl would catch on fire.  Finally, Abbey couldn’t help but carefully push back the girl’s hood.  She gasped a little in surprise and took a step back.

That was Indu, Karuna’s friend that was studying to become a healer.  That wasn’t a good thing.  For one thing, Indu rubbed Abbey the wrong way, even before Abbey had overheard her talking to one of the guards as she gathered something from the forest for her stores.  Indu did not like Abbey.  Apparently she was overly protective Karuna and was sure that Abbey only had the worse intentions toward her friend.   The human had come across as possessive, and a little insane.  Actually, a lot of ideas she came up were frankly insulting.

Abbey snorted in disgust and stepped away from the woman, her steps hitting hard on the ground as she stomped away from the woman’s body.  There was nothing else Abbey could do.  She didn’t know much about how to catch and keep heat, she had done the best she could and the rest was up to Indu.  Abbey wasn’t sure what would be better.  On one hand, if Indu died, Abbey would probably get the blame, it might be too dangerous for her to hang around the area again.  Even if the humans didn’t find Indu’s body, they would assume that Abbey had stolen their healer away for some stupid reason.  If Indu lived the “teen” might blame Abbey, say the yeti abducted her and held her in a cave until she escaped. 

In both cases Abbey would be leaving the village and Karuna for an extended amount of time again, and the winter season was too dangerous to leave Karuna alone for that long.  Abbey sighed in her chest as she felt a couple of pieces of snow caress her body.  She already felt overheated just looking at the fire in her cave.  Though, it was questionable whether it would be her cave after this.  Indu would probably wake up before the storm ended.

Abbey stared out of the cave, her shoulders relaxed as she watched the steady fall of the snow.  She just wanted to run out into the snow and run away.  She had been alone so long.  The giant had only stayed for a couple of hours, but she could have run away at any time.  In this cave, she felt like she was trapped with the human.  She couldn’t just leave Indu alone in the cave.  What if Indu rolled into the fire?  Abbey couldn’t let that happen.

Abbey sighed and messaged her eyes.  She really was weird with humans.  Even ones that had proven to be against her and her enemy she couldn’t take her spear to.  They were her size, weaker maybe, but they could easily level the playing field by bringing a gun.  Abbey should at least feel like she was entitled to duel them.  But no, instead of confrontation, she would run from it, not out of fear, but because she wouldn’t fight back against them but wasn’t just going to stand still and suffer their abuse.  Abbey even admitted herself that she felt protective of them and their silly little village.

Indu groaned.  Abbey glanced back toward the fire.  Indu was rolling in the bear skin.  Abbey started to walk toward her.  If the human rolled to much then she would end up set on fire, and Abbey knew that while humans needed warmth, fire would kill them.  Then Indu’s eyes snapped open, and like she could sense where Abbey was.  Her breath caught and a scream strangled itself in her throat as she began fighting against bear skin. 

Abbey quickly walked toward the ridiculous human.  If Indu kept fighting the bear skin like that then she would roll herself into the fire.  Then she was free, running toward the mouth of the cave.  Abbey reached out, she couldn’t let the girl run into that blizzard.  Humans were silly creatures with very little in the sense of the world.  Indu would just get caught in the snow again and then she would freeze to death.

So Abbey reached out to catch the teen before she got away.  Except, somehow, she caught bare fingers.  Immediately Indu screamed out and she hastily retreated until she hit her back against the cave wall.  Tears and snot immediately started to fall down Indue’s cheeks and she cradled one hand to her chest as she rocked back and forth.  Abbey took a couple of steps forward, worried for the girl, her blue hands reaching toward her.  Indu saw Abbey coming toward her and let out another scream.  She glanced down to her hands and Gana took a step away from the girl.  Her fingers had turned dark, the brown skin turning an ugly blue black.  

“Stay away you monster!” shouted Indu, her voice breaking as she continued to cry.  Gana took a couple of steps back.  Indu sobbed loudly and looked down at her hand. “My hand, how could you do this to my hand?”

Gana looked down at her own hand.  She had hurt a human.  Not on purpose, not as she should, but by accident.  Is this what the yeti had meant by controlling herself?  Was her skin so cold that it hurt the humans she meant to protect?  No, she wasn’t Gana any longer.  She did not want to hurt the humans.  She was their protector.  She was their Abbey, unwanted yes, but she did not hurt them. 

Indu watched her, coming to stand slowly to her feet.  Her sobs had become a touch quieter, and she stared hard at Abbey, her hand clutched to her chest.  She watched Abbey closely and then finally she ran.  Abbey had been waiting though; she quickly got in the human’s way. She was careful to keep her hands behind her back, but she was careful not to touch the silly thing again.  Where had Indu’s glove gone?

Finally the girl fell back into the cave, crying, and sobbing as her chest heaved hard against her ribs.  Indu screamed some more and finally contented herself to huddle by the fire.  She continued to cry, but at least she wasn’t trying to throw herself back into the blizzard or wasting so much breath.  Abbey watched her carefully.  When it seemed that Indu had contented herself and rolled herself into a ball to glare at Abbey, the yeti walked to the pelt canvas and took her tools to start fashioning some gloves.

“What are you doing?” asked Indu after Abbey had started to get into her work.  The yeti glanced up at Indu, pausing momentarily in her work.  Indu’s gaze hardened in anger.

“Karuna said you couldn’t speak,” snapped Indu. “I don’t believe him.” Abbey kept working; she had already heard that from the girl’s mouth.

Silence fell over the cave.  The blizzard started to ebb a little, but it was only a couple of hours until complete darkness.  Abbey wouldn’t dare send Indu home until it was light.  By morning the worse of the storm would be over.  Indu could easily find her way home in the morning.  Until then, Abbey would keep her here.

“I’m hungry,” said Indu.  Abbey looked up.  She sighed and put down her work.  She went to her stacks of meat and took out a frozen chunk.  Abbey also put her spear to the side, hoping to show good faith.  She headed over, and after a second’s thought, wrapped her hands in cloth before she presented it to the teen, who took it, making a face while she held it like it was contaminated. “I can’t eat raw meat.”

Abbey titled her head in confusion and then shrugged.  Indu sighed and shook her head in disgust. “This thing is frozen solid; I couldn’t get my teeth into it even if I wanted to.”  Abbey shrugged again. “Get me a stick or something.”

Abbey glared.  This girl was impossible.  She did something nice and Indu acted like this.  She turned her back to the cave mouth and went to the branches and snapped off a branch.  She also grabbed some snow.  Water was something every creature needed. 

“Thanks,” said Indu, almost reflexively as she took the branch, though she did flinch as Abbey leaned in.  She also looked down at the snow Abbey put in her lap in confusion.  Abbey mimed eating.  Indu stabbed the meat carefully with the stick and then held it over the fire.  Abbey watched the girl in interest.  Indu seemed to have trouble holding still, her body constantly shifting and moving as she heated her food and picked at the snow.  Abbey watched with some interest.  The snow actually melted in Indu’s hand even as she ate it, and her body was constantly wracked with shivers.

Eventually Indu pushed the rest of the snow onto the cave floor and concentrated on cooking her meat.  Abbey stood and went back to her work.  Indu kept looking back toward her until Abbey finally brought her work over to the fire.  She didn’t sit close to Indu, and she pushed into the damp walls of the cave, but she kept in sight of Indu.  That seemed to calm the human down marginally, now her eyes just skittered up toward her every once in a while. 

“So, am I your prisoner?” asked Indu, taking a deep breath in. 

Abbey shook her head, most of her concentration still on her work. 

“Can I leave?” asked Indu with a roll of her eyes. It was obvious she knew the answer.  Abbey thought it was a stupid question too.  Abbey shook her head again. Indu snorted. “Then I am your prisoner you stupid monster.”

Abbey threw the canvas material down in annoyance.  She pointed outside and quickly signed that if the stupid girl tried to go outside, she would die in the blizzard.  Indu looked at her for a couple of long moments before she snorted.

“Speak like a normal person.  You can understand me, obviously, so why the hell won’t you speak!” shouted the human.  Abbey tensed and Indu flinched backward.  Abbey brought her left hand up so her palm faced toward the sky and then she hit like a knife with her pinky hitting hard on her palm.  The gesture was simple, it just meant ‘no’ but from the way Indu seemed frozen, then the angry intent and frustration behind her use of the sign had got across to the stupid teen.

“Were you always mute and stupid?” demanded the teen.  Abbey glared, then she relented, and touching pinkies together she brought her hands up into a small circle until her allowed her fingers to interlace and fall back into her lap.  It was clear the human had no idea what the sign meant based on her confused look, but Abbey was being completely serious.  The sign roughly meant “once” but more specifically it meant something that had once been true but wasn’t any longer. “I didn’t realize that yetis had a form of sign language.  Do you use the same signs as humans?”

Abbey shrugged.  She doubted it, but her people did speak the same language as these humans so it was entirely possible. 

“Do all yetis know sign language?” asked Indu.  Abbey started to nod and then shook her head. Her tribe… the tribe at the top of the mountain all knew sign language.  But Abominable’s tribe apparently didn’t know it. “Well, do they or don’t they?”

Abbey looked up at the frustrated teen and then pointed at the meat that had dipped completely into the fire.  Indu gasped in surprise and then hastily pulled the meat out of the fire swearing.  Then the teen glared at Abbey like the yeti had been the one who tried to light it on fire.  Finally Abbey brought up her hand and pointed to the scar on her left palm.  Indu looked at it in confusion.

“Is that a mark from your tribe?” asked Indu.  Abbey wasn’t sure how to respond.  They weren’t her tribe. “Oh, your tribe knows sign language but you don’t know about Abominable’s.”

Abbey ended up nodding.  To try and do anything else would only confuse Indu.  Without her words, Abbey couldn’t articulate the complexity of the situation.  Better to let her use some misinformed wording before moving to the next problem. 

“Huh, do your people communicate in only sign?  The Wall, the village that’s between the wall, it says that yetis are stupid giants that only scream and kill,” said Indu.  Abbey titled her head to the side.  The last part wasn’t a question, so hopefully her answer wouldn’t be confused with the last part of Indu’s ramble.  Really, why did humans prattle on so much?

Abbey lifted her hand, middle and ring finger raised and then cut them in half and then cut between them with her other hand.  Indu watched the movement, not saying anything and looking more than a little confused. 

“Can you go back to your village?” asked Indu, taking her meat from the flames and poking at it a bit before putting it back in the fire.  Abbey watched the human with some interest.  She didn’t get what was wrong with the meat.  Abbey always ate her food frozen, but apparently the humans were so warm blooded they thought eating raw food was gross.  But all the ice had melted from the meat.  Maybe they liked their meat particularly dry.  Abbey wasn’t sure. 

Abbey shook her head in the negative.

“Is that why you’re following Karuna around?” asked Indu with a dark laugh.  Abbey shook her head, partly because she wasn’t really following Karuna around, just trying to keep an eye on him when she had the ability. “Is it because he found you when you were hurt?”

Abbey lifted a hand and titled her hand from side to side.  Indu chuckled, shaking her head.  She winced and brought her hand to her chest, pain reflected across her features.  Abbey stood and walked over to the girl.  She carefully wrapped her hands in the intact part of her canvas.  Indu shifted away from Abbey, watching her suspiciously.  Abbey carefully leaned forward and took Indu’s hand in her covered ones. 

Indu watched her in confusion and then looked down on her hand.  Abbey gathered a little ice into her hand and then threw it into the fire.  She sent a small prayer to the moon, rocking back and forth and carefully keeping her grip on the hand.  Finally she leaned down and kissed the air right above Indu’s hand and then quickly wrapped the hand in the bit of canvas before she went back to work on her gloves. 

“Well, that was weird,” said Indu.  She looked down at her covered hand and then went back to cooking her meat. She continued talking without looking at Abbey. “Was that your way of saying sorry?”

Abbey didn’t answer seeing as the human wasn’t watching her.  Suddenly Indu drew back from the fire and looked at Abbey.  Abbey glanced up from her work.  Indu looked surprised.

“You won’t let me go because you’re afraid I’ll get lost and die in the blizzard.  You saved me,” she said, sounding breathless.  Abbey nodded sharply once before returning to her work.  It was rather obvious that she had saved Indu.  The human really shouldn’t be that shocked.  So her surprise meant nothing to Abbey.  The human still couldn’t leave until morning and after Abbey would have to figure out a new place to hide out in.

 


	6. The Dart of Friendship

Abbey slipped on the gloves as she stood to look out the cave.  It was light outside, and she pretty sure it was snowing lightly enough that she could take Indu to the road and point her in the right direction.  Now all she had to do was wait for the other girl to wake up. Indu had spent most of the night awake, and had eventually given up trying to cook her meat, wasting it instead by throwing it into the flame. 

The snow danced on her palm as she caught three flakes mid flight.  Soon the drifts would be coming down in big chunks, then a scattering flurry, and then nothing but a couple of light spurts the rest of the day, ending sometime in the night.  Abbey watched the white flakes spin around each other, bringing up her other hand as they moved faster and faster as if caught in a whirlwind that sported small and compact in her hands.

“I’ve never seen yeti magic before,” said Indu, much too far into Abbey’s personal space.  She had to stop herself from grabbing the teen around her neck and taking her down.  Instead she ran a hand down the girl’s cheek and went to get her spear.

“So, are we heading out now?” asked Indu.  Abbey nodded as she signed for her to get ready. “Oh, you covered up your hands.”

Abbey glanced up at the human.  Indu had a weird habit of stating the completely obvious. 

“I liked your hands.  I mean, not the whole giving me frost burn,” said Indu, looking down at her wrapped hand with a misty look in her eyes. “But the color, and you have such pretty hands.  Most yetis, even females, are big hulking things with fists the size of clubs.  But yours were so… and they shimmered like glitter over a clear midday sky.”

Abbey glanced down at her hands in confusion.  She had never thought of her hands as being beautiful.  They were weak and usually they broke easily under an onslaught, and she had spent many a night nursing bruises and broken bones under the moonlight with her tribesmen all around her.  

“Are there many yetis the same size as us?” asked Indu.  Abbey shook her head and mimed for Indu to leave the cave before her. “Oh, was it hard being so small?”

Indu turned around to walk backwards as she looked at Abbey.  Abbey splayed her hands in front of her face and then collapsed her hand into a fist as she hit where her lips were.  The sign meant the other girl was wasting breath by chattering on the way she was, but Indu apparently thought she meant something else because she giggled and ran to walk beside Abbey. 

Abbey watched the girl carefully.  This personality change was weird.  She expected the human to still be angry with her.  To act more reserved toward the yeti she had hated so much just a little while before.  Abbey grabbed the girl’s shoulder.  Indu tensed and immediately tried to get away.  Abbey was easily able to subdue her and then reached for the hand still wrapped in canvas.

“Oh that,” said Indu, and now Abbey let the other girl get out of her grasp.  She showed her fingers, they looked much better than they had the night before. Abbey breathed a sigh of relief.  She hadn’t been sure the simple healing would take effect on humans.  The healing wasn’t perfect, but it probably would have been more effective if they had shared energy or Abbey had actually contacted Indu’s ancestors.  Not that the humans seemed to hold their ancestors in such high regards as yetis.  Well, no, that wasn’t fair.  She had heard some about ancestors, she probably jus hadn’t been listening to the right conversations. 

“Thank you.  I don’t know what you did, but it really helped,” said Indu.  She then bit her lip. “I’m sorry about how I acted after you saved me.”

Abbey shrugged.  They walked for a little while in silence again.  At least Indu could be quiet, Abbey still remembered the way Karuna had rattled on and on none stop. 

It wasn’t long until they reached the road.  Indu turned to her in confusion when Abbey stopped.  Abbey pointed in the direction of the village.  When Indu turned In the right direction Abbey turned on her heels, ready to leave.  She wanted to ask if Indu was going to rat out the location of her cave, but decided against it.  The human could easily lie. 

“Wait, aren’t you going back with me?” Indu asked.  Abbey stopped and glanced back at the human.  She shook her head.  The guards would probably just shoot at her again.  “But I thought that you wanted to see Karuna.” 

Abbey shifted the spear on her back uncomfortably.  She then brought her hand up, miming holding a gun and then she flinched like she’d seen humans do against the recoil of their guns.  She’d seen them do shooting practice a couple of times before.  Karuna wasn’t a bad shot.  It ended up being a good thing that he was incompetent and paid no attention to his surroundings because he could have easily killed her if he had his act together. 

“They won’t shot you,” said Indu slowly.  Abbey was a little happy that the teen could figure out what some of her more basic signs meant.  Then again, it also meant that Abbey had to defend her decisions instead of just running off.  The yeti sighed, rubbing the spot she’d been shot before. “Oh, one of the guards did hit you when you froze our crops.”

Abbey stomped her foot angrily and folded her arms.  Indu blushed and pulled the hood a little over her eyes. 

“Right, the yetis told us you meant to help us,” said Indu.  She sighed and waved her hand nervously. “Listen, I’ll walk a bit in front and signal the guards that you’re with me.”

Abbey took a step back, slipping the spear from her back and clutching it protectively to her.  She shook her head.  Indu could just as easily signal the guards to kill her. 

“Please Abbey.  I want to make this right,” said Indu.  Abbey shook her head violently and then started to quickly back up as fast as she could. “You’re shaking, don’t you trust me?”

Abbey finally turned and ran.  Maybe it wasn’t something a strong yeti would do, but Abbey already knew that she had fallen from that regard long ago.  Plus, it wasn’t that cowardly to leave her now.  Abbey still couldn’t talk to her, she wasn’t going to attack the human, and in the end she really needed to find a new place to sleep. 

Half way to her cave she veered off and headed for a small forest further down the mountain.  She was careful to keep out of sight, pulling a thin cover of snow over her armor.  Besides that she kept to the deep drifts and was careful to keep the snow moving under her feet so that there was no sign that she had walked by.  The spear on her back felt heavy on her back.  Usually she wouldn’t notice the weight.  She had trained with spears.  They were as much of her as her clothes.  The needlework on her lips, or the presence of the scars on her palms should be more distracting to her than anything else. 

The open air felt good on her lungs.  Abbey was tempted to pull down her face mask.  Her face was feelings hot, her lips felt swollen.  Maybe if she could put some snow or ice on her lips they would start feeling better.  Actually, staying out in the open for a while might be good.  The whole being out in the open wouldn’t be comfortable, her bones called out for some sort of place of safety. Still, she could deal, and she would start looking around for a place to consider.

So Abbey kept out of the way for a day, pushing snow against her face mask and calling herself paranoid.  The village wouldn’t find her and so what if they saw her lips sewn shut.  Knowing her current luck the yeti from Abominable’s tribe had already told them about it.  Abbey sighed and ended up climbing a tree and trying to avoid the chill in the air and the thick layer of snow that now coated the ground.  It was so much easier to control ice and snow then it was to first create it and then work from there.  Less power needed, and it tended to cut the reaction time in half. 

As Abbey stared up into the sky, watching as the stars shown bright in the sky, she wondered what had happened in the village when Indu had returned to it.  Had the girl told them that Abbey had saved her, or did she say the small yeti stole her away and burnt her fingers.  Not that she understood that part, she had thought burning only came to the flame, but it sounded like humans could be burned by both heat and cold.  Humans really were weak creatures, creative, but perhaps that was the only reason they were still alive.  Instead of having any strength of body or sense in their surrounding, they instead relied upon creativity and luck to get on in the world. 

That must mean in other places in the world they were probably not as powerful.  Were their mountains out there where no humans existed?  Were humans only native to this mountain range?  Or did they usually dwell where yetis and giants weren’t usually? 

What was their natural habitat like?  Why had they felt the need to start moving up the mountain when they clearly could not survive it?

Abbey fell asleep, arms hanging to balance her weight, back against a tree trunk, one leg slipping off the branch.  By the time she opened her eyes again, the sun had risen in the sky and warmed up the air around them with enough heat to start melting the snow.  Abbey glared at it for a second, lifting her hand to catch a drop on her gloves.  Why was everything melting already?  The freezing season had just started; winter had just begun its true grip on the world.  No snow should be melting and making her feel lethargic under the sun’s harsh rays. 

Something sunk into her arm.  Abbey flinched, reaching up she pulled out a dart that had made it through the cloth that made the lower half of her face mask.  She stared at it for a second before throwing herself out of the tree.  Behind her she heard men curse.  Abbey landed hard on the ground in a crouch.  She quickly through up a shield of ice behind her, ignoring the humans and only thinking to get away. 

The ground under her twisted and seemed to move under her very feet.  Abbey shook her head, and crashed into a tree as she tried to keep running.  She must have been getting further away from the humans because their voices sounding further away.  Abbey groaned in pain, her stomach twisting, and her vision tunneled for a second.  In seconds Abbey found herself crashing to the ground, the whole of her weight falling against the snow.

Poison, they had poisoned her.  Well, they hadn’t shot her with their metal.  No, poison was the more reliable method.  Abbey continued to try and pull herself to safety.  She didn’t want to die, not after all she had gone through, it just didn’t seem fair.  Her vision continued to tunnel though, her mind became fuzzy and holding thought was like trying to grip tight onto flowing water.  Abbey felt hands fall on her, and she struggled against their grips, but she could hardly move her body.

The world finally darkened and Abbey slipped away.

“Should we take off his mask and make sure he’s alright?” asked a female voice.  It was distant, quickly becoming clearer the longer Abbey gripped onto the moment.

“We should probably put him back into snow.  Keeping him in here is probably only going to make his recovery take longer,” said another, gruffer female voice.  Abbey slowly forced her eyes open.  She felt so hot.  It was so bad that she was pretty sure she was going to melt.  Her chest felt heavy, and sweat made her armor stick to her skin.  Why was it so hot during winter? Had the humans learned how to heat the land around them?

“Abbey,” Karuna came into her line of sight.  He was blurry, but Abbey recognized him well enough.  She flinched as his hot breath heated up her face worse then before. “Wow, you have really purple eyes.”

“Don’t crowd him boy,” said the gruff voice.  Also female, though Abbey didn’t remember hearing it.  The heat, or maybe it was the poison, made her limbs seem heavy as Abbey started to try and move. “Yeti, look at me, I need a proper look at you, but it’s hard to treat someone whose skin temperature will burn my own.”

Abbey ignored her.  If they wanted to kill, they could do it properly.  What had she done to them really?  Abbey had rescued their villager, protected them from beasts and their own kind.  She would not allow them this slow and agonizing death.  She would fight for that breath of freezing cold air until she took her last breath. 

“Abbey, you need to stop,” said Karuna, trying to push her back to her blankets.  Abbey glared at him and felt a snarl try to break her lips apart.  She tasted her blood, it was cool to her lips, but even her blood had started to turn to water instead of just the slush she had suffered before. 

Angrily she pushed at her captors, pushing to the back of her mind anything they tried to tell her.  A human tried to pick her off the ground and she tried to force them off, snarling and pulling her arms away.  She hurt, pain running through her entire body.  One of the humans knocked her over the head sharply with a blunt object and hands appeared at her sides, trying to pick her up and move her away. 

And then there was cold air.  Abbey ripped her arms out from its holder and toppled into the snow that she found.  For a moment she was tempted to rip her armor was, but the sight of Karuna coming close again made her pause. 

“You soaked the bed, did you know that?” he asked.  Abbey looked at him stupidly for a couple of moments before she pushed at him.  He laughed and toppled over.  Abbey settled on gathering as much snow as she could around and then trying to stuff it down the seams of her clothing, the little gaps that would melt the cold ice loser to her skin. 

“Don’t be rude,” snapped Indu.  Abbey looked up at the teen and glared.  Indu looked away, blushing.  She brought the thick coat to hide her face in her collar.

“Should we cover you in snow?” asked Karuna. “We could turn you into a snowman.”

Abbey shook her head.  At one point covered in snow meant that heat would get trapped in instead of cooling her off.  And Abbey had decided she definitely didn’t want to be a snowman.  Abbey wondered what it would be like to be a human.  To be afraid of the snow and cold.  To be so weak that she had to rely on cowardly weapons.  It must be weird.

The humans continued to watch her, and Abbey saw the third one.  An old looking woman with a cane, probably the one who had hit her.  Abbey folded her three middle fingers, stuck out the thumb and pinkie, brought the thumb to her chin and then dipped her hand in the opposite direction she titled her head.  She wanted to know why they had brought her here.  Even more so, she wanted to why they were treating her so kindly after trying to overheat her and ruining her armor.  Unfortunately, unlike shaking her head, and a couple of other signs that Indu had seemed to work out before, ‘why’ was not a universal sign between the yetis and humans. 

“Are you alright yeti?  Are you willing to take some clothes off so I can look you over?” asked the old woman.  Abbey shook her head. She would not remove her clothing.  The last time she so much as her hands show, she had hurt the humans.  Plus, she needed her armor.  She still didn’t know what they wanted or if she was safe.  While her armor was severely weakened without the ice reinforcement. 

Before they could start talking again she held up a hand, surprising this worked on even Karuna.  Abbey balled her hands into a fist and “violently” hit it against her neck.  She fell over, closing her eyes, and then lying as if unconscious.  Then she sat up and repeated “why”. 

“We don’t know your sign language,” said Karuna slowly and loudly.  Abbey rolled her eyes and then shuffled away from the old woman when the human tried to get close to her.  “Kshama just wants to help you.  She’s our healer.”

“It’s alright Karuna.  I wouldn’t trust the people who drugged and stuck me into a sauna after I did them a favor, either,” said the old woman.  She then slowly started to lower herself to Abbey’s level.  Abbey watched her.  She should probably stand, that way she would be the one who would have to lean down, but her legs still felt like thin ice.  Plus, Indu quickly came to stand next to the old woman and supporter her leaning down. “Now, boy, between one and ten, one being at death’s door and ten at perfect health, how are you?”

Abbey thought for a moment and then held up seven fingers, after a moment of confusion she lifted one more finger.

“How do you feel?  Can you show me what’s hurting you worse?” asked Kshama. Abbey looked up in confusion. She tapped her fingers against her legs.  Finally she lifted her hand and then started lightly tapping her fingers against her face and heading down her body.  The old woman watched her carefully and then shook her head and sighed. “Let’s try it this way.  Are you hot?” This time the old woman fanned herself as she asked.

Abbey nodded, with one hand she fanned herself and with the other hand she tapped her nose. 

“On the scale of one to ten, how much is what you’re doing helping?” asked the old woman.  Abbey held up five fingers.  While she wasn’t overheating any more, she was still light headed and uncomfortably warm from the heat still trapped against her armor.  At least the cold had worked in enough to reach her sweat and kick start the cooling process. “Would it help if the snow was directly on your body?”

Abbey nodded and tapped her nose again.  The old woman’s eyes narrowed at her.

“Does the nose tapping mean yes?” she asked.  Abbey nodded and tapped her nose again. “It seems a little redundant.”

Abbey shrugged.

“Any other sign for ‘you don’t know?’” asked the old woman with a roll of her eyes.  Abbey shook her head, brought up one hand horizontal to the ground, the other vertical from the ground, pinky down, and then brought the vertical one down on her horizontal hand. “So bloody complicated.  Fine yeti, what about the drug?  Has it left your system?”

Abbey titled her head to the side.  They watched her.  Karuna actually concentrated solely on her hands. 

“Do you know what a drug is?” asked Indu.  Abbey titled her head to the side.  She knew she’d heard the term, and it obviously had been done to her.  Finally she just shrugged and brought her hands to her chest and then gracefully brought her arms out as if begging for something, palms up and open. “It’s what knocked you out.  You probably feel sick, light headed, have a hard time concentrating, some yetis said they itched or their ears felt hot. Do you have any of that?”

Once again, Abbey concentrated on how she felt.  She hit her stomach once, and then tapped her head. She pointed to her head but shrugged since everything felt hot.  She also pointed her mouth.

“Your mouth is it dry, itchy, or both?” asked Kshama.  Abbey froze.  There wasn’t a sign for itchy.  The sign language she knew was supposed to be used in conjunction with speech. Most of the words in sign were for simple sentences, so that she didn’t waste her breath a trivial yes or no.  Abbey shifted from side to side on her hands.  Finally she brought her hands up and rubbed her hands together.

“Dry?” asked Indu.  Abbey signed no sharply and shook her head. 

“You should do itchy like this,” said Karuna as he used the fingers of one hand to mime digging into the back of his other hand.  Abbey copied the movement.  Indu made a noise and the old woman knocked Karuna over the head.  Abbey was up in a moment, ripping the cane from her hand and glaring at the woman.  Indu gasped and stumbled away in fear. 

“We got it yeti, no attacking the boy you’re stalking,” said the old woman, leaning against Indu and making the girl pay enough attention to hold her up. “You must be feeling better if you can move like that.”

Abbey nodded and looked over at Karuna, who for some reason was glaring at the old woman.  Not that Abbey should be upset over that, seeing as that probably meant he was supporting her.  Still, it was really weird for humans to suddenly be treating her so kindly.  To suddenly ask act like they cared about how she felt and if she was hurt.  Even if they were the ones who had hurt her.  After all, the last two times she was caught just outside the village she’d been shot.  Once with a gun and once with a dart.  Though the dart was a drug apparently. 

“Yeti,” said Kshama.  Abbey looked up at her.  She reached out a hand. “Can I have my cane back?”

Abbey held it out, but watched the woman carefully to make sure that she didn’t try to hit Karuna with it again.  Kshama watched her and then pocked Indu. “Explain to the yeti why he was brought here.”

Abbey perked up and looked over at the teen.  Indu looked away from her.  It was hard to tell if she was blushing or not, apparently the cold made the girls face turn red. 

“We want you to live here.  You’ve proven that you want to help.  I got most of the town to agree and build a little cold hut next to Kshama’s house here,” said Indu.  She wouldn’t look Abbey in the eyes as she explained.  Abbey brought her thumb to her chin and repeated the dip out with her hand while she cocked her head to the side. “I don’t know what that means.  But you can be with Karuna now.  Sorta.  He still has classes, but you can see him afterwards, and the guards’ll get used to you soon and you can do rounds with them.”

Karuna turned her head to face him. “We want you to live in the village.  The villagers agreed as long as you keep mostly out of sight.  Abominable mentioned that you might want to meet with Seth.  He’s our resident yeti expert, also does a good deal with meditation and yoga.  He’s agreed to meet with you a couple of days a week while we’re at school,” said Karuna.  Suddenly he smiled widely and pulled Abbey into a tight hug. “We promise not to hurt you anymore.  No more shooting or drugs and you can be part of our village.  Isn’t that great?”

 Abbey definitely mostly felt confused.  She signed ‘why?’ again.  She had no idea what was going on. 

“Please Abbey?” asked Karuna, taking a step back and clasping her shoulder. “We want you here.  You’re not going away.  You obviously want to help.  Anyone who’s worried you’re still a threat agreed that it would be better to have you insight instead of sneaking around.  You’ll be useful as a guard once we get our guards to protect you.  Plus, Indu trusts you now, which apparently the biggest hurdle you needed to get over.”

Abbey looked between the three, and then used her thumb and forefinger to close her eyes and the brought her fingers together.  She might have been out of it for a couple of hours, but she still felt exhausted.  She’d deal later.  Plus, the more she heard, the more she was ready to just roll with what the humans were saying.  She would be able to do her task better with the humans being more welcoming of her presence.  She wouldn’t have to hide away in that case. 

“Would you like to be alone yeti?” asked the old woman, staring like she could see Abbey’s soul. Abbey paused.  That wasn’t what the sign meant.  She didn’t want them misinterpreting her signs, though she supposed she could change the meaning of the signs to meet their meanings. “As long as feel well enough, I see no reason why you can’t get used to your new home.  Though I will expect you to eat dinner with the three of us.”

Abbey nodded.  She held out her hand and Karuna took her it and started to lead her around the small building that was the medicine woman’s house. Abbey had always thought it was a little weird that the healer lived just a little outside the village.  Not by much, just enough that it was separate.  It was also small Karuna lived a little further in, but he did spend a lot of his extra time in the place.  At first, before Abbey realized he was friends with the healer’s apprentice, she thought his silliness kept getting him hurt and she was missing it because she wasn’t close enough to really observe him. 

The little cottage wasn’t must.  Abbey would work on it.  She had a table, a light, a candle, a bureau, and some random supplies.  She turned as Karuna said his lengthy goodbye, and with a sigh she finally started stripping and headed for bed.  She would have to trust that the humans would not invade her privacy.  With a sigh she found the coldest corner, curled up, and tried to will herself to get some rest.

 


	7. Picture Perfect

The moon ice caught the light in her necklace, as she curled next to the table and watched the light play over walls.  She liked candles.  They had their own danger to them, but it wasn’t enough for her to be overly worried, and the little heat it supplied was almost comforting.  Abbey smiled and ran her fingers over the smooth surface.

A knock had her jerking her head up and looking toward the door.  Quickly, almost tripping over her own feet, she ran for the door and knocked twice.  She then started throwing on her clothes.  The door started to open and she threw her weight against it.  Abbey felt the leather rip at her lips, tasting the cold sting of blood on her lips.  Maybe her blood wasn’t ice quite yet, but at least getting there.  Back to slush and chunks of ice. 

“Abbey are you okay?” shouted Karuna.  Abbey rolled her eyes and angrily knocked on the door twice.  She was coming out in a minute.  Didn’t these people know about privacy? “I don’t know what knocking means.”

Abbey rolled her eyes and hit the door with her back.  Couldn’t the stupid boy take a hint?  She quickly got the rest of her stuff on.  It still took her a bit, she did have a few layers, and slipping them all on in a hurry actually made it feel like she was taking too long.  Finally, she opened the door.  Karuna stood straight from where he had been leaning against her walls.  Abbey looked over at him and then just stared at him.

“You’re really finicky, you know that?” asked Karuna.  Abbey titled her head to the side in confusion. “I mean, you’re like a girl with the whole privacy thing.”

Abbey rolled her eyes and turned her back on him, lifting her right hand with the thumb, pinky, and middle finger all pointing out so he could see it. 

“Why do I have the feeling you flipped me the bird?” asked Karuna, coming to walk next to Abbey.  Abbey shrugged.  She had no idea what ‘flipping the bird’ meant. “I hope you don’t mind being a little overheated for a while.  We’re eating in Kshama’s and Indu’s.  Hopefully Indu’s cooking.  Kshama’s a great medicine woman, but she really can’t make anything edible to save her life.”

Abbey didn’t have any signs.  She actually wasn’t sure how she felt about it.  She had been overheated enough for one day.  But if she ate with them, well, then Abbey could stop worrying couldn’t she?  Eating and sharing a meal was the way to cement a growing friendship.  If they really did want to eat with, and have a proper meal, not just the food she shared with Indu, then that meant they were sincere in their intentions.  Breaking meal with someone, sharing that resource, that was sacred in its own way, a promise in many other.

So, yeah, she would prefer to go back into the stifling hot house never, or at least wait until she had lined her armor with ice again.  But she couldn’t ignore this chance.  It was too important.  She would go to this meal, break bones, or whatever humans did, and they would be friends.  Yes, she was finally being accepted into a tribe.  Sure, it was with beings she’d once thought of as only “the enemy” but after so long being alone, but she wanted to belong again.  She needed to belong again.  These humans were hers to protect now, no matter her background.

She had no background.  She hadn’t existed before Karuna found her and rescued her by sharing his life force with her.  She existed only to protect him, anything more was just icing on the cake. 

“Are you crying Abbey?” asked Karuna, stopping them right before the healer’s door.  Abbey shook her head, and quickly started pushing at the tears that had started to freeze under eyes.   Some had frozen and strengthened her mask. “Maybe we should wait.  I mean, you really got overheated today. I’m sure Kshama would understand you missing one meal.  It might be for the best.”

Abbey shook her head and grabbed onto his arm, reaching out to open the door.

“Alright, alright, I got it.  Just don’t cry.  I mean, what am I supposed to do with a crying yeti?  I don’t even know what to do with Indu when she’s upset,” said Karuna, rambling in the only he really could.  Finally they slipped inside.  Abbey took time to properly observe her surroundings.  The place was crowded and stifling.  It had all sorts of dried plants hanging from the ceiling, metal, cloth, and various elixirs that seemed to be set all over the room.  There were a couple of small cots set by a roaring fire, and Indu and Kshama were talking at the longest and biggest table in the room.

The place really was stifling though.  All the stuff scattered around probably added to the feeling, making the room seemed cramped and overgrown, but it was more than that.  The fire sent heat billowing into the room, and filled the space with a golden glow.  The smells too.  Now that Abbey concentrated on her nose, well, there was just so much.  Roasted meat was there, but also the harsh smell of the elixirs were quickly giving her a headache.  Abbey shook her head, were all human homes so overwhelming?

“Good, come and sit at the table you two,” said Kshama.  Abbey walked over and sat where the old woman pointed.  She watched as Karuna followed Kshama’s harsh orders and worked in tandem with Indu as they set out various trinkets needed or a human meal, which included a plate, but also small utensils that yetis didn’t usually have use for  except in special cases unless they were dividing the meat or eating some sort of special soup. 

“You can eat cooked meat, can’t you yeti?” asked Kshama almost offhandedly.  Abbey nodded.  Abbey wondered when she would be expected to start helping.  That would finalize their friendship after all, move it from being experimental and a little impersonal to them being as good as family.  Did she really want humans to be as good as family?  Would that be taking things too far? 

Still, they seemed happy enough.  They still wasted breath as they talked together.  And they almost seemed to have forgotten about her as they joked and pretended to grudgingly listen to Kshama’s instructions.  Actually, it seemed like half the time they already knew what they had to do and the old woman was wasting breath trying to “remind” them, or whatever.  Abbey sat by and finally they all sat down to the table.  There wasn’t a moment of silence between all of them.  Abbey couldn’t keep up everything they were saying. 

It was interesting watching humans as they wasted breath.  The old woman kept the most still, the most active part of her body being her eyes and mouth.  Karuna, for as much as he did to set the table, mostly picking up the heavier items, such as the plates and bowls of food (a meat dish,  steamed vegetables, a soup, and some bread), but he only moved as much as he had too, once in a while almost tripping, though he quickly was able to catch his balance.  Then there was Indu who seemed to talk almost completely with her hands and expressions when she got comfortable.  Her entire body moved in exaggeration and what she said was almost completely lost in the whirlwind of everything else.

Then they ate.   It just sort of started.  Abbey watched them for a few moments before Karuna pushed the plate into her hands.  Abbey used the fork to spear some of it onto her plate.  The entire meal was overly… and then the obvious occurred to her, and she paused.  She brought a hand to her lips, still covered with the cloth.  She needed to eat with the humans to cement their friendship, but she couldn’t eat.  She still didn’t want to show them her disgrace, to prove how worthless she was by revealing the leather that kept her lips sewn together.

“Abbey is something wrong?” asked Karuna.  Abbey tapped the table, unsure how to explain her predicament.  Kshama looked over to where Abbey was, with her one pathetic strip of meat.  Abbey wasn’t sure what to do.  She had to eat the food.  If she didn’t that would be more than rude, it would be a rejection of what they were trying to give her.

“If the food is too hot, then you can freeze it.  It’s what the yetis do when our dealings with them require a meal,” said Kshama offhandedly.  Abbey nodded.  There had been part of her that had hoped that maybe the humans wouldn’t know tradition, or didn’t take meals as seriously as yetis.  But that had been a silly dream.  Humans weren’t that different from yetis.  It turned out that certain things were just across cultures.  Like spoken language. 

Abbey cut the meat into tiny pieces in strips.  After she carefully removed her gloves, placing them beside her.  She glanced up at the humans, they were all watching her carefully.  Obviously this was an important moment.  Abbey drew in a shaky breath and touched the meat and it instantly froze under her fingers.  She pushed a little more of that chill until it filled the entire slice with the cold hard frozen piece.

Getting it past the mask and into her mouth was difficult, especially since she was still trying to keep her mouth from sight.

“You have got to be kidding me,” said Karuna.  Abbey looked up in time to see him drop his head into his hands. Indu actually giggled. “I told you.  He’s like a fussy girl.”

Abbey folded in her fore and ring finger and then lifted her hand.  The rest of the table laughed, even Karuna.

“You shouldn’t pick on him,” said Indu, dipping her bread into her soup.  Abbey took some soup to, touching the surface and turning the soup into hard slush.  She’d freeze it solid, but that would make it harder to break it off and eat it.  It was easier to eat something liquid then solid. “Didn’t Abominable say something about Abbey having a reason he doesn’t speak?  Maybe he has really bad scars.  He has a cross on his hand.”

“I did not realize that yetis could scar like that.  I would have thought you’d have to cut off their hands or a finger to permanently hurt them, though I admit my knowledge of yeti healing ability is limited.  Do the scars bother you?” the old woman asked, leaning over the table a little to look at her closer. 

Abbey shook her head.  She opened her hands so they could see her palms. They all leaned in except Indu who kept picking at her food.  Abbey then closed her hands and continued to eat.  If was definitely a bit of a trick.  Not only keeping her mouth covered, but getting the food also past her sewed lips so she could eat.

“I still don’t see how that doesn’t make him into a girl,” said Karuna.  He turned to Abbey and pointed his knife at her. “Listen Abbey, chicks dig scars.”

Abbey looked at him in confusion.  Why would she want baby chickens to dig at her?  If nothing else it gave her a reason not show her face, though why would a chicken attack her face if it already had scars on it? 

“I think you just confused him,” said Indu and then smiled at Abbey when the yeti looked up at the teen. “Um, he means that girls like boys with a few scars.  Means the boys aren’t scared to fight for what they believe in.  Which is an outdated stereotype.”

“How?  Girl’s still need guys to protect them.  There’s still yetis on top of the mountain to deal with, no offense meant Abbey,” said Karuna.  The old woman cackled as Indu rolled her eyes again.

“You were the one who named him Abbey.  I think you’ve already offended him,” said Indu.

“You don’t mind your name, do you Abbey?” asked Karuna.  Abbey quickly started shaking her head.

“There see, he does mind,” said Indu.  Abbey glared at the human.  She would have thrown something, but it probably would have been rude. 

“How are you doing yeti?” asked the old woman.  Abbey shrugged and gave a nine.  The house was really way too hot, but the cold food was definitely helping.  As long as she got a good deal of ice back into her armor.  Then she’d easily be able to stand a meal in this house.  Even if she would continue to be uncomfortable beyond belief. “Anything acting up that I should ask your people when they come and visit?”

Abbey titled her head to the side in confusion.  There was no way that Karuna’s village had any dealings with her old tribe.  Her old tribe had only thought of human’s as enemies.  And yetis did not negotiate with the enemy, they only fought and destroyed them. 

“Kshama means Abominable’s tribe,” said Indu.  Her concentration still fixated on her food.  Abbey wasn’t sure what that meant.  Abbey titled her head, but in the end she just shrugged and then shook her head.  There wasn’t anything hurting worse than it did normally.  She didn’t even feel that lethargic, despite the heat that was sinking into her bones. “I really don’t think it’s going to be enough to just communicate through signs.”

“Why not?  They seem simple enough,” said Karuna.  Indu rolled her eyes.

“I talked on the chat.  Sign language is a language in of itself.  And there’s a chance that his sign language isn’t the same as the one humans use.  I mean, I guessed what some of his signs meant, but from what I described; it didn’t match for the most part.  And even if it did, we have no one to teach us beside him.  I thought you could teach him how to write.”

“Why me?” asked Karuna.  Abbey looked between the two teens.

“Because he wants to spend time around you, not me.  And you’re the one who’s so set on going to college,” said Indu.  Abbey looked at her in confusion.  What was college?

“Can you write?” asked the old woman.  Abbey shrugged. “We’ll check after we finished the meal.”

The meal, it turned out, didn’t last that long after.  Abbey didn’t get much down, but humans were apparently a little more lenient in custom then yetis, and the old woman had Karuna package some of the food up for her.  And Abbey found herself thinking maybe this was a better sign then she could have hoped for.  Even though Abbey had been a bit rude by not eating much, they were showing kindness by allowing her some of their food.  Then again, humans seemed to have more food and supplies then her old tribe.

The thing they gave her to write with was small, it was dwarfed in her hand, and Karuna kept trying to adjust her grip.  Abbey thought the grip felt weird and tried to hold it in a fist instead.  She did not like this pincer grip that Karuna kept putting her hand into, though she could understand it in a logistical way.  The thing disappeared in her hands when she gripped it.

Also, according to Karuna, the ‘ink’ which was black and not blood, was already inside the small thing.  It was also called a pen.  Not a paint brush, though when she mimed they had quickly been able to realize she was asking about paint brushes and said they had it also.  Abbey quickly started to paint what she wanted to say.  It was hard, usually humans looked all the same.  Abbey looked up a couple of times to look at how they looked.  In the end, while there was a different style to their clothes, but not anything different in how they were made. 

Still, Abbey looked at them carefully.  Enough so that Karuna realized she had started to draw and went over to watched her.  Finally she found some small differences she could draw.  Indu had a shirt that went to mid thigh and had a thin belt.  Karuna had button shirt with stripes and a loose scarf that was wrapped around his neck in a dangerous fashion.  Finally Kshama was a little hunched over with delicate glasses and a shawl hanging around her shoulders.  Abbey quickly started to draw them eating at the table, she might not have training in drawing hunting maps, and this was a little unorthodox, but she tried to show the kindness and generosity the humans had shown her and also the friendship and trust she helped it built between all of them by having this meal.

When she was done, Abbey looked up to see Karuna had his head in his hands, apparently he thought that what Abbey had drawn was hysterical.  Indu was walking toward Abbey with a book and Kshama had gone to work with her herbs.  Abbey turned back to the silently laughing Karuna and glared at him.  She had really tried to draw the picture right.  It wasn’t nice of him to make fun of her.  And did he expect her picture to be beautiful? She had no training and she didn’t believe in being overly flowery with what she was drawing. 

“That is not writing.  That is a picture,” said Karuna, he actually had tears in his eyes.  Abbey reached forward like she was going to draw on his face.  He backed up, holding his hands up in mock surrender.  Indu put a small, relatively thick rectangle with what looks liked thin canvases all stacked together in front of her.  Abbey glanced at Indu and then back down at the thing.  She brought it over to her and then opened it.  There were hundreds of pages of little squiggly black lines that covered the white small canvas.

“This is a book.  It’s called _Paradise Lost,_ one of the texts for my class,” said Indu.  Abbey titled her head to the side in confusion before she shrugged and looked back at the book.  She still didn’t understand what they were trying to get at.  How did this tell her anything? “Well, looks like you’ll get to test how much you learned Karuna.”

Abbey looked up at them.  Indu sounded taunting.  But Karuna just laughed a little and shook his head as she punched his shoulder.

“Alright, but hey, that’s a pretty good picture Abbey,” said Karuna.  Abbey glared at the human.  That might have been a little more convincing if he hadn’t been laughing at her just a couple of minutes before. He waved at her, like he was trying to wave her glare away, though he was still chuckling as he did it. “I was laughing at the fact you thought drawing was writing.  The picture’s pretty good.  You could be an artist if you ever give up the stalking thing.”

Abbey glared and then drew a quick picture of her in her armor standing in front of Karuna with her spear lifted in a defensive manner.  When she showed it to Karuna, he rolled his eyes. “Fine, you think you’re my protector or something.”

Abbey nodded, and then after a moment of thought, circled her spear.

“You’ll have to make a new one,” said Indu.  She picked up the book and shrugged. “The guards accidently snapped your other one in half.”

When Indu said ‘accidently’, she brought up two fingers on her free hand and folded them in half twice.  Abbey copied the movement, trying to work it into her repertory of signs.  She’d need to expand on her signs.  Even though she was apparently going to learn writing.  It didn’t look like it made any sense, so Abbey would probably spend most of her time the next couple of years mostly communicating in sign.  Though she could probably draw some of her answers if at all possible. 

Karuna started to laugh again and she glared at him.

Indu then threw another of the squares at her.  It was bigger but thinner.  The teen then went over to sit next to Kshama.  Abbey went to look at the book.  It looked a little different.  Most clean, and it had pictures of pen looking things in different colors on the cover.

“Oh, that’s a great idea,” said Karuna looking at the picture book first before he leaned back to smile at the girl that now seemed to be ignoring them. “I have some art supplies I never use.  I’ll go get you some pencils and a sharpener.”

Abbey watched him walk away.  She looked down at her pen.  What was a pencil?  She could guess what a sharpener was, though how it would help with a pen was a little bit of a mystery.  Abbey started to leaf through this book, but then she paused when she realized there wasn’t anything on the white canvases.  That made no sense.  Weren’t they trying to teach her how to write?

“It’s a sketch book.  We use blank books like this to draw basic pictures.  I’ll get you a smaller one that will fit in your pocket,” said Karuna. “You can use this one in your spare time.  You know, practicing drawing fast and clearly so we can understand you.  You can also show me how to draw.  I suck at drawing, but I took a couple of courses online, and I really love looking at art.  I’d kill to be able to draw half as well as you did.”

Abbey titled her head to the side and then quickly drew him showing her one of the blank pages.  Karuna looked at it in confusion for a second.

“You think I need to get you another book for you to draw?” asked Karuna finally.  Abbey huffed and put her drawing down to sign ‘no’.  But he was looking away from her, putting some pens down that looked different than the one she was using now.  These were yellow, Abbey could see the black they would use to draw across the white canvas, there were also little nubs of pink on the end of them. 

“These are pencils.  See, they’re like pens, but you have to keep them sharp with the pencil sharpener, which I will get you tomorrow, and the little thing on the end is called an eraser.  You can eras what you already drew in pencil.  The pen is permanent, you can’t erase it, that’s why artists like to use pencils,” said Karuna. 

They spent some time over the sketch book, and Abbey ended up indicating she was overheated before they finally gathered everything together to they could leave.  She got pretty good at drawing, and Karuna even showed her some of the squiggles called letters that she’d be learning to write to make words. He’d also told her what they were all called, but she only remembered some of them. 

Still, drawing was turning out to be fun.  Abbey found it much easier to communicate when she used both the drawing and her signs to get her meaning across.  It wasn’t perfect.  But she did get across that she wanted to see what he had drawn.  She was interested in what humans drew, and even if Karuna thought he wasn’t good, it would still give her an idea.  Humans really were fascinating in their own way.  From all the colors and weaves that she could see through all the stuff in the house.  They looked more complicated than the ones she usually saw.  Well, no, the attention to detail was carried out in different ways than in how yetis would do so.  But Abbey would reserve judgment.

Karuna helped her carry all her things to her door.  Abbey found herself laughing and pulling at the leather keeping her mouth closed tight.  Blood slipped onto her tongue, but it didn’t hurt as badly it usually did.  Abbey was sure that it helped she was caught up having fun with Karuna.  The growing friendship helping ease her mind.  Abbey found herself having to stop any movement she wanted to make to stop Karuna from leaving her. 

It was alright, she had a tribe now.  She had the humans.  Maybe they weren’t perfect. Abbey didn’t know what to make of Kshama yet.  Indu was confusing going from hating her, to apologetic, to ignoring her.  And Karuna continued to be a little too talkative and happy.  Still, they were hers now.  Abbey would protect them. 

Abbey arranged her things in her room, leaving the light Karuna turned on for her on.  It wasn’t much light, and Karuna had commented on that.  But Abbey didn’t need too much light to see by and waved him away.  As much as she wanted Karuna to remain, it was too cold for him.  Abbey could not follow him because he lived where it was too hot for her.  So she puttered around, putting her stuff where she wanted it.  It was annoying that the guards had broken her spear, but she could make a new one.  Not tonight though.

After what felt like a good amount of time had passed, Abbey slipped out the door.  She didn’t have as much time as she would like, and she had to be back before Karuna woke up to get her, but she would start working on her armor.  First she needed to go and find one of those overgrown puddles with ice.  While she could just use the snow, going from ice would make the transformation easier. 

Abbey lifted her head as she walked out into the moonlight.  She’s work on her armor tonight, and then maybe do some less important parts when she had time in the morning.  Karuna said he had classes for a chunk during the day, so that should give her time. 

Still, with the moon on her back, and the cold rushing through her body and chasing away the heat, she was feeling more invigorated.  Abbey walked away, pep in her step.  A village and a new family, new rules and a new doctrine.  Abbey needed to be at her strongest to take all that on.

 


	8. Meditation

It turned out that some guard told Karuna that she left during the night.  Thankfully he had done so after Karuna had already woken up, and it just meant that Abbey had practically gutted the teen with ice when he crashed into her little house.  It had taken a while for her to get across to him what she was doing, and even now, three days later, Karuna still acted jumpy over Abbey leaving at night. 

Abbey thought he was being silly and was tempted to hunt the guard down anyway to gut him because Karuna had become almost insufferable.  He constantly watched her and wanted her near him, which wouldn’t have been a problem, but the villagers were obviously uncomfortable of her presence despite not actively chasing her out.  And he kept expecting her to stay in buildings longer than she was comfortable with.  Abbey ended up running away once to her room for an hour before Indu came in and dragged her out to meet with some guy that showed her all these neat spears and gave her a “shift” of guard duty. 

The shift turned out to be scheduled so that Abbey would go from eating with her human friends and then take the shift until midnight.  Abbey was working on convincing Karuna to just come after his afternoon classes.  She didn’t really do much but snack in the morning and the woman were always busy getting ready for the day.  Karuna had shown her his pictures one morning, and that had been interesting.  Humans really used a lot of colors.  Abbey had liked the pictures well enough, especially once Karuna told her that human pictures was more about expression then drawing what was really there.  Abbey thought that Karuna must have lots of ability with expression since she had trouble identifying what anything in his pictures was. 

When Abbey had finally got that across to him, he had told her to try not too many compliments anymore.  Abbey had used the middle finger on her sword hand to go from the right side cheek, down over her lips, and ending at her chin.  Though apparently by telling Karuna that he was being rude, she was being rude by flipping him the bird.  Abbey had then confiscated his artwork then, drawing that he obviously didn’t deserve his artwork when he kept putting it down.  She won by freezing his feet to the ground and then hiding his pictures in his house before he could chip his way out. 

  Abbey put away the pictures, she felt like her own were lacking.  She had tried to use the colors that Karuna had given her, but she still felt like her artwork was too stiff.  Still, she didn’t draw to make beautiful pictures for humans to admire; she did it so they could understand her.  Her stiffer style made more sense that way.  Abbey bounced on her heels.  Karuna had dropped by to tell her Seth was coming to her little cabin.  Abbey had spent some time arranging her few belongings in her house and trying to make the place a little warmer without making it uncomfortable for her to live.  She also set out the candles. 

She still didn’t understand what she was going to do with Seth.  Karuna had said something about meditation, but Abbey was unclear what that was.  Karuna said it was learning how to breathe and be quiet in your soul, but Abbey already knew how to breathe and she couldn’t speak in first place.  Indu had scoffed and said it was a useless practice that people thought could replace medicine and really was only something people used to make them think they were better than everyone else.  Of course then Karuna and Indu had started fighting, not that Karuna seemed to actually disagree with Indu, but apparently he thought Indu should support meditation. 

Humans were confusing.  They not only put each other into all sorts of different labels, they also seemed to think certain behaviors went with these different jobs and labels and when anyone went against that label they had so far rejecting that idea or at least fought with it, trying to make the person fit the label.  Well, maybe that was over generalizing, but something about humans was starting to make her ridiculously uncomfortable. 

There was a knock on the door and Indu jumped.  Then she shook her head, trying to reassure herself that she was being ridiculous being so jumpy.  She quickly went to the door to open it.  The man on the other age was probably in his late twenties.  He was tall for a human, with enough furs on that he looked fat despite having a skinny face. 

“Hey,” he said, pushing his way into Abbey’s dimly lit house.  He had a raspy voice and held himself with a straight back. “Nice place.  Would you feel more comfortable here or out in the snow?”

Abbey clenched all her fingers together and then opened them out violently and let her hand drop about an inch.  It was one of the many, and what she thought, was the clearest sign for snow.  The sign language of the tribe at the top of the mountain might be basic, but snow and ice was what they worked and thrived in and one of the few concepts they had various signs were to get the right meaning across when they were signing about. 

“Sorry, I’ve only met with two yeti tribes beside Abominable’s and from what I could tell, they didn’t have sign language either,” said Seth with a shrug.  Abbey sighed and went to her rickety table and picked up her sketch pad, the smaller one the guards had told her to always keep on her when it was her watch.  She quickly sketch a snow flake on the pad and showed it to him.  He immediately understood what she met and made a swooping gesture toward the door before he walked out the door. 

Abbey followed, quickly sketching a pillow before jogging up to Seth.  He jumped in surprise when she shoved her sketch book under his nose. 

“We don’t need pillows,” said the human slowly, obviously realizing that Abbey would ask about pillows even as he said it.  Still, he didn’t try to correct his guess so Abbey tried to write _comfortable_ on the page, remembering to try and switch to what Karuna called a “pincer grip”.  While it was less comfortable then her fist grip, but it did allow her more control for the small motions needed to write letters.  It turned out Abbey had an ear for languages, especially when used in conjunction with using written word.  Abbey should have been born a full grown yeti, then maybe she would have had the chance to take up learning war painting.  She already had all the sounds in language down, and now was working on learning to write the words.  Karuna was threatening that he was going to teach her English next so that she could eventually take over and teach him.

Abbey just wondered why Karuna seemed to be learning such random subjects, though she supposed they all worked together somehow for humans.  Maybe Karuna was supposed to be their “every man”, someone who could do everything instead of just individual tasks, though he apparently wasn’t learning much about healing according to Indu. 

“I don’t what you wrote,” said Seth, Abbey glared at her word.  She said she learned some of the sounds, that didn’t mean that she knew how to write yet. 

They didn’t go too far from the village, and eventually it just seemed like Seth got tired of walking and flipped himself backward, right on top of the snow, making a snow angel as he did.  Abbey watched and then copied the movement.  She never understood why they were called snow angels, but she didn’t know what an angel was in the first place. 

“Alright Abbey, did Karuna give you any idea what was is going to happen?” asked Seth, sitting up and putting his feet together with his knees spread and pointed out.  Abbey copied the pose.  She shrugged and went to the page where she had drawn Karuna doing a ‘meditative’ pose. “Right, the meditation will help, but that’s only part of it.  See, meditation in humans is something that most cultures have started to abandon since we can’t see what happens outwardly and now all this logic and need to immediately see the results of what we do.  Apparently meditation has fallen under the belief of being a hooky old practice that only people who smoke until their brains come out of their brains still do.  But, thankfully for you, meditation has a proof positive result and all yetis, at least in the tribes I’ve come in contact with, teach it at a young age, probably because they deal with humans, and learning the meditation will teach you to learn how to control the temperature of your skin.”

Abbey looked at Seth incredulously, trying to figure out if the human was insane. It was hard to tell, half his face was covered with the thick coat.

“You can check with Abominable when he comes next year,” said Seth.  Abbey made a face and Seth laughed. “Alright, first thing you need to do is find a comfortable, dignified sitting position.”

Abbey had no idea what this meant so she looked carefully at Seth, who had closed his eyes, and copied the way he was sitting.

“Keep your spine straight, relax your shoulders, close your eyes or let your sight relax.  Concentrate on your body, feel the way the cold air nips at your face.  Feel how your clothes rest on your skin, is it itchy, hard, are there creases.  Let this information register and then let it go.  Really pay attention to how you are sitting, how the bones in your spine align, one on top of each other.  Feel the weight of your limbs.  Feel it pull down toward the center of the mountain, acknowledge all of this, and then let it go, move to your nose and to your senses.  Acknowledge the sounds around you; hear the wind at your ears, the distant movement of the village.  Hear your breath, listen to small cracks and sounds your body makes as it moves and digests. 

“Turn your mind to your body and let it evaluate what it finds.  Start at the tip of your toes and acknowledge and find all sensation there, what hurts, what’s relaxed, don’t try to change, just acknowledge what is there and then move slowly in small sections up your body,” said Seth.  Abbey tried, sort of.  She really didn’t understand what the crazy human was asking her to do.  It sounded impossible, but Abbey did her best to follow along.  Though she did crack her eyes open, looking to see what he was doing.  Every time she did that though, all she saw was him still sitting there and talking.

Still, as ridiculous and confusing as the instructions were, Seth had hinted that if she could learn to do what he was telling her to do, she wouldn’t freeze her friends with her touch anymore. 

Finally he came to the end of what he was saying.  Abbey realized that she hadn’t been paying attention to the last part of what he had been talking about. Abbey waited, but he paused and continued with a couple of deep breaths before he smiled and carefully opened his eyes. Abbey wasn’t sure what she was waiting for, but slowly Seth appeared to come back to himself. 

“Well, let it sink in, and when you feel like you’re ready, tell me what you thought about this experience,” said Seth.  Abbey immediately went for her sketch pad and tried to draw Karuna with a confused expression.  She then accompanied by what Karuna called a question mark, a simple symbol that would show she was confused if the head tilt went unnoticed. “You weren’t sure what’s going on?”

Abbey nodded and tapped her nose.  Seth chuckled and Abbey glared at him.

“It’s alright, the first few times can be confusing, controlling your mind is difficult, and the more you acknowledge the lack of control you have, the more you can watch acknowledge the stray thoughts that come through your mind while you meditate and then allow those thoughts to continue through you and then let them go and re-center yourself.  I remember when I started I thought it was idiotic, it took me a long time to see its merits,” said Seth.  Abbey nodded.  She thought it was, if not idiotic, then silly.

“We’ll keep practicing, everyday if you think you can spare the time.  Are you always free in the mornings,” Abbey pouted.  She thought this would only happen a couple of times of week.  She drew herself sleeping. “Of course, yetis are primarily night creatures.  Though the hours your people keep would drive most humans mad.  One day you’ll spend the whole night awake, and then three days later you’ll be awake during the day.  Let’s see, I have an hour free everyday but Friday at eleven before I’m scheduled to be writing.  The computer lab lets me bring food as long as I’m careful. So we’ll meet at eleven, probably best if we meet in the town center.  It’s a bit dangerous out here during the winter.  No offence.”

Abbey shrugged.  Actually, that sounded like one of the first reasonable things she heard the humans said.  Indu and Karuna seemed suicidal in how they approached going outside their villages.  Karuna at least brought a weapon, usually, though he was inept at using it. 

“Do you know where the central park is?” asked Seth.  Abbey shook her head, and she tried to think of a sign or a picture she could draw that would ask if it was a good idea.  She knew the humans weren’t comfortable with her presence.  Well, most of them weren’t. 

Seth though, seemed uninterested in her actual answer and was pushing her to head back into the village. Thankfully, it looked like most of the humans were inside, keeping warm in their houses that were probably as bright and stifling as Kshama’s and Indu’s place.  Karuna’s place had also been warm, but he had things all over the place, and it had seemed less bright, and a lot smellier. 

“So, tomorrow we can meet there around eleven, how does that sound?” asked Seth, Abbey shook her head to get rid of the heat.  Then she nodded and made her fingers tick like she’d seen Kshama’s clock do. “You don’t have a clock.”

Abbey nodded.  Seth pulled back his coat and took off his right glove and then moved his hand, folding it and with very delicate looking fingers, took off the black bracelet and held it out to her.  Abbey paused before she took it.  The guards had tried to give her a gun the first night, except, even with the gloves, the metal eventually choked up with ice, or something, and she broke it.  Now they let her use a spear that she had gotten from the same supplier as the humans who sold guns.  Abbey was glad.  She really didn’t like guns.  She understood why humans needed to use it, but it still felt cowardly for her to use. 

The bracelet had a little face on it, the same face as the one in Kshama’s house.  Abbey carefully looked over the watch, reminding herself how to read.  She looked up at Seth, brought her hand to her lips and then dropped her arm with her palm up.  He couldn’t see her smile, but she hoped it showed in her eyes. 

“It’s fine.  I use my cell phone as a clock these days.  The only use it has way up here,” said Seth. “Here we are.  I don’t know why we call it a park.  It’s maybe an acre, has one tree, no grass grows, but I think it’ll serve our purpose for now,” said Seth then he frowned. “At worse we might have to move to the center if the local kids are being too loud.  You’re alright with heat for a little while right? You really shouldn’t be uncomfortable especially when you’re just beginning.”

Abbey hit her chest twice, thumb pointing in, and her fingers splayed out; trying to tell Seth that she would be fine.  Seth cocked his head to the side but then he just chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ll take that as you’re fine,” said Seth.  Abbey nodded and gave him the thumbs up. 

“Hey!” shouted Karuna from somewhere behind them.  Abbey turned to see the teen running their way.  He had a bag slung over his shoulder, and was slipping on the snow and ice every time the bag swung out. Abbey glanced over at Seth, but he didn’t seem bothered. Karuna finally made it over to them, huffing more than he should have if it was a quick sprint over. “How’s it going?”

“We’re finished for the day,” said Seth with a smile. “What about you?  Don’t you have classes?”

“Took the one I had to be logged on for, and I’m almost done with my projects for my other classes,” said Karuna with a shrug.  Seth raised an eyebrow and Karuna threw his hands up even as he tried to catch his breath. “I won’t fail a class after that first time.  Really, most of them are free now a days.”

“Still, that last time was rather epic,” said Seth. “I think the yetis found out about it.  And I heard Indu’s parents really tore into you.”

“Who?” asked Karuna and the shook his head. “Anyway, if you’re done, I can take Abbey out.”

Abbey rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.  This whole following her around thing really was getting on her nerves.  She could entertain herself, and she obviously wasn’t going to disappear on them.  Abbey noticed that some humans were looking her way, eyes straying on the spear sheathed on her back.  There weren’t many yet, but the way they stared made her feel very self conscious, and she found herself tugging on her armor, very aware of how she must look.  The only thing she had going for her was that she was almost completely covered, and only the area exposed around her eyes gave her away as a yeti.  Abbey tugged on her hood to cover her eyes.  

“Alright, it’s about time for my class,” said Seth, he then turned to Abbey. “I’ll see you tomorrow at eleven Abbey.  If you find time today, see if you can’t reflect and see if there’s anything in your past you think you can connect to meditation.  It should help making the process easier to understand and hopefully make it easier for you to master.”

Seth bowed to her, and Abbey copied the movement automatically. 

“Come on Abbey,” said Karuna.  Abbey hit him, and when he looked at her, she pointed back in the direction he came from. “Not you too.  You don’t even understand what’s going on.  Listen, I just want us to hang out.  Okay, maybe you’re not social, but I am.  I want to get to know you.  Believe me, if I could I’d go and bother Indu too.  Except I did that before and Kshama almost bit my head off.  She takes this whole apprenticeship way too seriously.  That and apparently her patients don’t gossip when I’m there.  Which I don’t get, because I’m not the one who’ll share secrets with anyone who’ll listen.”

Abbey splayed her hand over her covered mouth and then balled her into fist and tapped her lips.  She was trying to tell him that he was wasting breath, but more than that, humans probably didn’t tell him secrets because he was so nice and chatty.  Like no one told Pyry things.  But they might tell Indu because she was a healer. Abbey had seen yetis become very chatty with the healers and elders of their tribe.  To the point that telling them they were wasting breath seemed to be redundant. 

“So, how was meditation?” asked Karuna.  “I never spent much time around Seth, but he’s a pretty smart guy.  Tends to wander when its warmer, so hopefully you’ll have this mediation thing down before then.”

Abbey took out her drawing pad from her pocket and then quickly showed him the picture she made. 

“I don’t know what I’m talking about?” asked Karuna.  Abbey shook her head and pointed at the question mark. “You don’t know what mediation is?  That could be a problem.”

Abbey hit him over the head with the sketch pad. 

“Fine, fine, um,” Karuna looked at the picture.  Abbey watched as he walked into a metal thing that stuck out of the ground for some reason.  Abbey had promised to protect Karuna, but the human did need to learn to protect himself for when Abbey wasn’t there.  He should already know how watch where he was going to see a metal thing sticking out in the open right in front of where he was walking. “Oh, meditation confuses you.”

Abbey tapped her nose.  Karuna smiled like he’d found the answer to why mountain goats had beards.  He took the sketch book from Abbey, ripped out the page and then gave back the sketch book.  Abbey looked down on the book before she hit Karuna with the book again.  He laughed and ducked away.

“You hit like Indu!” Karuna shouted.  Abbey tucked the sketch book away and started running at him.  He let out a loud laugh and started running away.  He really was very fast.  Abbey had seen his speed a little before, but it was rather intimidating to try and chase him down.  In the end, she had to throw out a sheet of ice under his feet before she caught up to him.  She did that by jumping on him after he had already fallen on his butt.  Karuna let out what Abbey thought was a very satisfyingly high pitched screech as she rolled him across the street.  She found herself laughing and playfully holding him down, only stopping when Karuna apparently went mad and started calling out for his uncle. 

Sitting up she dusted all the snow off her, throwing it off her body and then making it spin around her, hoping around in the snow to honor her victory.

“Yeah, yeah, it doesn’t count if you cheat,” said Karuna.  Abbey signed ‘no’ and he just rolled her eyes and the raised her hand for Abbey to help him stand. “Using magic is a cheating.”

Abbey signed ‘no’ again.  Because controlling snow and ice wasn’t magic, it was part of who she was.

“Whatever,” he said, slinging an arm around her.  Abbey rolled her eyes and let Karuna lead the way to his little apartment building. “So, is meditation confusing to you?”

Abbey nodded.  Karuna rolled his eyes.

“What’s so hard to get?  It’s all about breathing isn’t it?” he asked.  Abbey lifted her hand. He ducked away, hands up to his own defense. “Alright, alright, I got it.  No more making fun of the yeti, he has no sense of humor.  You know, you keep hitting me and I’m running to Kshama.  She’s harsh on people who abuse others.”

Abbey shook her head.

“You’re right.  She’d probably laugh me out of her house if I tried that,” said Karuna. “Poor me.”

Abbey just rolled her eyes and drew a new question mark on sketch pad as she watched Karuna strip out of all his outer clothes.  When he looked around he jumped and hit his head with his hand and tried to walk across the apartment with his boots half off.  Thankfully he was able to catch himself before he face planted into the floor, and Abbey sat back on the moldy bed/couch thing with a shake of her head.

“Right,” said Karuna, shaking his foot to get off the boot. “I was looking through some of my stuff.  And I don’t know if yetis have music, but I have this band here I thought you might like.  You know, to start introducing you to human culture.  Indu suggested it, though she said something about soothing the savage beast, but she’s being a wishy washy witch, we’re going to do for the other angle.”

Abbey cocked her head in confusion, but Karuna had his back to her.  He closed a small door on a small hunk of metal with little lights inside it.  There was a whiling sound, and then something wonderful came from the metal box.  In it Abbey could hear drums, but it was more than that, there were so many sounds, but they all worked perfectly together creating something beautiful. 

Abbey closed her eyes, letting the sound surround her.  She took in a shaky breath and just let herself get lost in the music, a smile spreading across her face and her foot tapping to the beat of the music. 

And then it ended.  Abbey sat up, and instantly shook with the realization of how overheated she’d become.  It wasn’t too bad, but she had probably got Karuna’s bed a bit wet, and she could feel the droplets of water running down her freezing skin.  She quickly darted outside to cool herself off.  Karuna stuck his head out after her a second later.

“You okay?” he asked, holding out her sketch book to her.  Abbey took it and she put it into her clothes. “That was the Himalayan Yak band; apparently Indu had a point when she said it soothed you.”

Abbey nodded.  She had really liked the music.

“That’s good.  I mean, you’re really into arty things aren’t you?” asked Karuna.  Abbey titled her head, not sure what he was getting at.  Karuna laughed awkwardly. “Great, we have something to do when you come visit.  Maybe I’ll show Seth and he can take notes. Kshama might also want to see that.  She’s always interested in learning more about yetis after she found out you guys heal so fast.”

Abbey nodded, not knowing what else she could do.  And then she glared at him when she realized he was in his inside clothes and was letting cold air into his apartment.  He had said his apartment took forever to heat.  She tried to shut the door on him.

“Okay, okay, wait a moment,” said Karuna hurriedly.  Abbey looked around the door to glare at him. “You get cooled down, and I’ll see you at dinner?”

Abbey nodded and waved to him as she walked away.  As she was heading away from his apartment she looked behind her to make sure Karuna had closed the door.  Abbey sighed and closed her eyes, concentrating on the memory of the music.  Meditation.  Maybe there was something about getting lost in her mind.  Maybe what she felt when listening to music was like meditating.  Abbey pulled out her sketch book and started working on a plan on how to ask if what she felt was like the music was what meditation was supposed to be like.  That would be wonderful.

 


	9. New Recruit

Guard duty was really boring.  Abbey shifted her spear a little and shifted her weight from one foot to the next.  She really didn’t like being at a post. Unfortunately she wasn’t one of the guards that made rounds, at least they were constantly moving.  Not that it didn’t make sense.  Yetis idea of defense was much more offensive then the human version.  So Abbey was stepping standing for hours just looking out into nothing.  Seth had told her to use this time to practice her meditation.  Music had helped her find away to push all the noise around her away, and her reflection on her ancestors was what it was. 

It had been three weeks since she started and Abbey still felt like she had no idea what she was doing.  She was a little sure she at least had an idea where her cold core was.  But that wasn’t because of Seth, he had given her something to call it, but she was pretty sure she had discovered it because she had spent so much time overheated that finding her core had been important so she could help cool herself off again.

Abbey sighed.  Apparently it was the time of good cheer, that meant the Himalayan Yak Band didn’t get played.  Instead they played different music, all of it was cheery, but none of it spoke to her the same way the Himalayan Yak band did.  But the cheery music would last until tomorrow.  Tomorrow was a special day; Karuna had helped her to make pictures that would interest Kshama, Indu, and Seth.  Abbey had been on her own with Karuna, but then she had an idea of what she was doing.  Christmas sounded charming in its own way.  Gifts weren’t customary with yetis except on special circumstances or points in growth and maturation.  Beyond that all things were shared within the community, with very few belongings being owned personally. 

Humans were different from yetis in many ways, and now Abbey was getting a lot of exposure to this particular one.  Humans were all about their things and money.  It was very important to them.  It was especially important that they themselves own it and no one else.  The guards had tried to talk to her about it.  Apparently the guards got money for patrolling the city, but then they said all her money went to paying for her home.

Abbey thought that sounded reasonable.  She only worked six hours a night, forcing Kshama to eat a little early then she was used to, so she didn’t work as long as the rest.  Plus, she didn’t money to eat since she got food from Kshama.  She had already made her own armor, though she was thinking a second set wouldn’t be remiss, that way she wouldn’t have to worry about bathing as much.  Karuna paid for her drawing pad that he got because of those classes he took.  She didn’t need money for anything else, so any extra money she got would have gone to Seth for his classes and Karuna. 

The days went by too slowly for Abbey’s liking.  She hadn’t gone for a swim, but she’d be doing so soon, and she didn’t care what Karuna told her, she was killing something.  The silly boy had gotten a weird notion about her hunting.  He told her not to do it anymore, that she wasn’t even to kill one when she went on her afternoon checks.  Unless the animal was attacking or had gone mad, Abbey was to leave it alone.  If it got to close she was supposed to call the guards or backup. 

Karuna had all sorts of idiotic rules.  Abbey hadn’t spilled any blood in ages.  Humans didn’t even fight each other to keep their skills sharp.  Instead they shot at still targets.  Abbey had heard of a hunting trip some men took at regular intervals, but they had made it very clear that she was not allowed on these trips.  Actually, the only reason they told her about it was to make sure she didn’t follow them and ruin their hunting.  Humans really were very selfish in their many of their practices. 

The night was winding down, one o’clock, the time she now got out.  Abbey was half tempted to take off and just go for a hunt.  Get out of this hot environment, cool down, get some blood on the ground.  But she had a feeling that wouldn’t be appreciated.  She could do it tomorrow night maybe, but almost the entire village had the day off, and she was going to spend it with Karuna, Kshama, and Indu, though the healers might be called away.  Apparently spending the holiday with friends and families was important to her friends. 

Abbey sighed as she was relieved of her post.  She would spend the rest of the night fixing up her pictures, her gifts, for her friends, and then at six she would go to Seth’s apartment and drop off his gift.  Abbey went inside the small barracks meant for the guards use, head on her pictures as she punched out, when someone crashed into her.  Abbey immediately turned around, grabbing the arm of the human and twisting it behind his back and forcing him to his knees. 

“Looks like even the smallest yeti can take you down easily, Lakshya,” said one of the guards.  Abbey let her captive go.  She had only reacted out of instinct.  She listened with half an ear, the guards tended to dig at each other with words instead of might and blows, and Abbey had found the waste of breath actually seemed to help with their morale.  So Lakshya would come back with some witty, at any moment, she was just waiting for the moment.

And then she turned back on the scene because the moment had past and the guards had started to tease the boy once again.  And Lakshya didn’t say anything back.  He was supposed to be witty back, or at least flip his fellow guards the bird.  A couple of humans were a little more like a yeti in their responses, but they still responded.  The new guard just stood and took it all.  He didn’t say anything or fight back, he just appeared to get smaller and smaller, and then one of the guards pushed him.

Abbey immediately stepped in.  She might be the smallest yeti there was, but she could take them all on.  On a good day, she could even do it without using her “magic” as the humans called it.  The guards liked to call it cheating; actually, using her connection to the cold and ice was seen as cheating by most the village.  Which was stupid.  If humans had an innate ability in something Abbey couldn’t call it cheating if they used it.  But they didn’t.  Abbey still hadn’t quite figured out how humans still survived in the apparent droves they did. 

“Get out of the way monster,” sneered one of the guards.  Abbey did not like the guards, she had learned two of their names by accident, but she was trying her best to forget them.  Karuna told her there were some honorable guards on the watch, but they all worked during the day. 

“This isn’t your fight,” said another.  Abbey shook her head and pushed Lakshya toward the wall, so none of the humans could get at him.  The guards should not be picking on someone who obviously was not equipped at the moment to take it.  Lakshya was probably a beginning warrior, an uncertain one based on his relatively small size and weight as compared to the other humans.  That didn’t mean he wouldn’t become a good warrior, but attacking at him and bullying him would only estrange him from their family and make him less likely to be reliable in battle. 

New recruits, even if they were older than Abbey was used to, needed support.  Yes, they needed to be pushed, and warriors would always be kicked around during fights and training.  But during down time they should be encouraged to mingle with each other and those with experience and create bonds.  The bonds would make them stronger, form the elders they would gain knowledge, and from yetis their age they gained lifelong companions. 

Apparently the night crew didn’t know this.  Abbey was starting to think Kshama was right when she said it was unnatural for humans to stay awake during the night.  They seemed to be crueler and more idiotic than Karuna had made them seen when he described them. 

“We’re just initiating the boy.  We all went through this when we joined the guard,” said one of the guards.  Abbey moved to stop him from going around her toward Lakshya.  Then she signed no and pointed to herself.

“Well, we weren’t…”

“Mute bitch,” said another of the guard.  He had a long black beard and beady eyes.  Abbey quickly splayed her fingers in front of her face and then collapsed and hit her mouth a little violently.  It was a waste of breath to insult her, and it was moronic on top.  Abbey might be small, but she was ten times stronger than any human that tried to attack her. 

But the human was apparently spectacularly stupid and with a roar, he attacked Abbey.  He had put away his gun for the night, but he was a big man, a little taller than Abbey, with a muscled form that bulked out his armor.  Abbey caught him easily in his run, twisting his punch to the side and she threw him off to the side and away from her and Lakshya.  The rest of the guards fell on them amass.  Abbey found herself using her ice and cold to freeze their feet and hands to the ground.

By the end, Abbey was surprised the entire village hadn’t armed up as well as they could, at least the off duty guards, to see what was going on in the guard barracks.  No one was waiting outside though, when she dragged Lakshya there and slammed and iced the door behind her.  She stared at the door for a moment and then Lakshya hit her back with something blunt.  She turned around and caught the stick and twisted it from his grip.  She watched him, confused why he was attacking her when it had been the others that done him harm.

“Leave me alone!” the human shouted, his voice cracking as he shouted. “I don’t need the help of some monster ruining my chances!”

Abbey watched him in fascination, her body tensing reflexively as he did seem on the verge of attacking her.  He was being loud enough.  But instead he turned to her and ran away.  Abbey watched him in go and then finally shook her head and headed for Kshama.  The humans would need someone to thaw them out.  Being frozen for long wouldn’t be good for them, they’re hands and feet might turn that same dark color that Indu’s had. 

Humans, that new guard, whose name she going to forget, was just one of those that reason she was starting to get a little fed up with humans.  So much emphasis on what made them different when half the time when those differences were picked apart and putdown by other humans.  Now she found out that instead of supporting their younger ones who were just becoming comfortable in their roles and jobs.  That was a bit much.

Kshama and Indu were unhappy with what they found and in the end it seemed like the entire village was angry at her.  Not that it helped that no one believed her.  She told them as best as she could what happened, but the guards spun their own story, and when the little new guard was questioned, he backed the guards’ story.  Of course the guards said they were putting the new guy through his paces, and that she had just attacked them for no reasons.  That wasn’t better, it still seemed like the city supported the harassment of its growing members.  Humans had absolutely no sense of community. 

So Abbey stormed out, in the middle out Karuna yelling at her.  This was not okay.  Abbey was leaving the village, not forever, she owed her life to Karuna, but she maybe she would go back to living in her cave.  She just couldn’t stand what she had seen and heard. 

Abbey spent Christmas day alone.  The one day humans were so close together, when Abbey could really drink in the camaraderie.  But it was never enough even when it was too much.  Yetis were social creatures, they needed family and tribe to survive past their early years, and even as adults, to truly be at their best they needed other yetis around them.  They needed ancestors and body contact.  Abbey hadn’t realized how starved of companionship she’d become over the hot months until she got the little amount of attention the humans gave her.  At first Karuna’s attention had gotten on her nerve, then she had spent a day away from him, and she felt weak. 

It was strange.  When she had been a part of the tribe, she had always been told that camaraderie and loyalty to the tribe and devotion to the ancestors were vital to survival, but she had never understood how vital until she lost it.  Even when she lost it, she’d been blinded by every other problem that stacked itself on her.  Now she found herself wanting company, but not human company.  Not even Karuna’s or Seth’s, they were all just so.

Abbey stripped out of her clothes, having navigated her way toward Abominable’s tribe.  Maybe not the safest, but the humans didn’t come near the yetis, even if they were friends with the tribe. Apparently there was still some bad blood, and the fact there was an ‘evil’ yeti tribe on top of the mountain was a source of even more tension.

Abbey beat her fist against the ice, a crack running through the small pound.  With a sigh that stretched her stitches she then let her hands sink into the cold water.  She slowly slipped inside the ice after; she’d get to her armor later, now she just wanted the cool shock of pure ice surrounding her.  She stayed submerged as long as she could before she surfaced for air.  She just needed to clear her head. 

It was fine; she could deal without the contact of others, even humans.  She wasn’t some squirmy baby that needed attention.  It would help, but with how her life was going, she didn’t need to be at her strongest.  There were no more big threats, not even her old tribe.  Abbey shook her head.  That’s true, if the yetis at the top of the mountain made it past the humans, in her new way of life she would be obligated to defend the humans and maybe hurt or kill her old tribe.

Ice crusted like a thin layer of snow.  Some yetis said that leaving the layer made them itch, but it was comforting to Abbey until it melted away. 

Maybe she should stop being Abbey.  She had been thrown out of her tribe, but that didn’t mean she didn’t love them.  She knew almost every yeti that had been in her tribe, the ones who would be the main fighting force best of all.  If the yetis attacked she would be up against Pyry, against all the yetis she trained with and she would have to fight them.  If she fought them, especially in those circumstances, there was a chance she would kill one of them unless she ran away. 

If she ran away, she was a coward.

But how could she kill any of them?  Her own brother had been killed by them.  Maybe he hadn’t been in the right, but that didn’t make what she was doing right.  She was making nice, protecting the things that had torn her family apart that constantly threatened her people.  Did it really mean anything that she had any right to turn her back on them?  Especially for humans, the enemy.  Abbey, Gana, had thought she should forget them.  It was best for both parties.  It was proper to throw to the side those that threw you to the side.  Though it did cause an interesting paradox in their ways of doing things. 

The sun came out before she stopped swimming.  She was Abbey, maybe.  She needed to think things out.  She gave herself until it was time for her shift to get back to go back and live with humans.  Otherwise she would return to her cave and her silence.  She would stop learning how to write, though she would keep drawing, correctly this time. 

She tried to meditate, folding her legs and going through the instructions Seth had given her everyday with very few changes.  Maybe she didn’t understand meditation, but there was something soothing about it, though apparently it was only soothing when Seth was there.  Trying to do meditation was very difficult. 

The day slipped by, and Abbey wasn’t able to make a decision.  She stopped trying to meditate in the end and went for a hunt.  She tracked down and killed a mountain goat.  It wasn’t the most exciting or interesting kill.  But at least it was a kill, at least she saw the red spill across the white and soak in and stain the ground.  In the end she started walking toward the village because time was slipping between her fingers too fast for her to make a decision.  In the end, it seemed more like her feet choose to stay with the humans more than her head did. 

When she entered the guards’ barracks a silence fell over the room.  Abbey could feel the spear against her back, and she gathered the cold around her hand.  Then Abbey turned around and gathered the ice around her body.

“Chilly,” said a voice.  Abbey turned.  She looked this new guard up and down.  He had slightly different armor then the rest of them.  If Abbey remembered correctly he was the chief, or some human term for the leader of the guards. Abbey went for her sketch pad. “Yes, we need to talk, come to my office.”

Abbey did so, glancing quickly toward the guards getting ready for the change in shift.  They were doing their best to ignore her.

“So, first thing first, you’re not working tonight,” said the guard, he paused when Abbey started drawing.  Abbey had started getting a hang of the human written language, and found many of the humans themselves didn’t know it.  Some of them knew basic language, so they could read what she wrote, but many claimed they had forgotten what little they had learned during something called “grammar school” so writing only worked with a smaller part of the community. 

Thankfully the humans she interacted with the most did know written language.  Kshama was horrible at it and her handwriting was almost illegible, and she read like she’d been forced to eat one of her scalpels, but the old woman looked like that half the time anyway.  Seth, it turned out, was the most advanced, apparently knowing how to write in four languages, three human and one called Egyptian Mummified. 

“I’m not going to have you killed,” said the guard, looking at the picture.  Abbey shook her head, and the man frowned and looked closer at the picture. “Or fired.  I’m sending you home because otherwise our healers and resident brainiac would have me flailed.”

Abbey titled her head to the side and the man sighed and pinched his nose.

“I wanted to apologize personally to you,” said the guard. “We discourage harassment, but unfortunately some of our members always believe in initiation rites called hazing.  They believe it brings the group together, humbles new members so they don’t get bigger than their britches.  Weeds out the undesirables and even cultivates pride within our ranks.  I don’t put up with it, but I run things in the morning, and as much as I’d love to be everywhere, I’m human and need to sleep.  This incident thankfully clued me into what was going on and is going to be stopped.  We are not a fraternity in some privileged, stuck-up, American college. We build community through hard work and support, not hazing initiations meant to humiliate those that “dare” enter our ranks.”

Abbey looked at him in confusion. She was sure she’d heard it was alright that they were harassing the young guard.

“When we said that the guards were showing Lakshya the ropes and putting him through his paces, or whatever the terminology was, what they meant was the guards were supposed to be showing him around and detailing his responsibilities as a guard,” said the leader.  Abbey’s eyes opened wide, and Abbey almost felt her mouth open as the leather pulled at her lips hard. “Are you alright Abbey?”

Abbey glanced up and then nodded, stopping herself from reaching towards her lips. 

“We were thinking of moving your shift to the daytime.” Abbey shook her head violently and the leader smiled a little. “But we thought that would be your reaction.  Instead I’m having my second in command take over the nightshifts.  Yetis attack at night half the time anyway.  Better to seemingly waste a good mans talents then get caught with our… Anyway.  I trust him and hopefully we’ll sort of the situation.”

The man then took out a note from his pocket and leaned forward to give it to Abbey.  The yeti took it.  She didn’t understand what it said.  There were some letters, and Karuna’s name, and numbers, but the numbers were too long for her to know what they stood for, all jumbled together and incomprehensible.

“This is for Karuna, otherwise he’ll forget and then blame me,” said the human.  Abbey took it and slipped it into her sketch pad. “Dismissed Abbey.  I expect you at work tomorrow for your regular shift.”

Abbey bowed and moved away.

“Wait,” said the guard, Abbey turned back toward him. “Kshama moved Christmas for your little family to tomorrow, so take tomorrow off too, but I expect you back the next day.  Now go, your family is waiting for you.”

Abbey turned and walked out the door.  As she headed away, she couldn’t help but think about what she had learned.  Well, maybe humans weren’t as horrible as she thought.  Some of them were, but there were fire spirits in every tribe.  They are unfortunate and disturbing to the entire makeup of the tribe, and they tend to get themselves killed off.  The ones that last are usually ones good at manipulating those around them to think they’re way is superior.  It’s how a lot of tribes started, by breaking apart from the old one and its rigid rules.  Generally those tribes have a very short lifespan, but some thrive and go on and eventually settle to the right path. 

Abbey froze outside the door of Kshama’s house.  She didn’t really dare to go inside.  She had a feeling that even though she had been in the right, Kshama and the lot would still be furious with her. 

“Abbey?” asked a male voice.  Abbey turned sharply, not being able to put a name to the voice but recognizing it.  She was surprised to find it was the young guard from the night before.  He had his arms going back and his hands hidden by his back. She folded her arms and glared at him.  He had sold her out.  Though, she supposed he was loyal enough, to the wrong people, but it had probably been him that finally told the village what really happened. “Uh, listen, I wanted to… It was my fault.  I made it right.  You’re going to be on the walls.”

Abbey couldn’t help but point at him.  He shrugged and looked to the side.

“My father… I have to be a guard but…” the humans shook his head.  His voice breaking as he talked. “Listen, I just wanted to apologize and give you this.”

He took his hands from behind his back and produced what looked like dead, mini yak.  She took it and stared at it in confusion. 

“It’s a stuffed animal, uh, human girls usually like it.  It’s not real fur or anything, but it’s squishy and lovable, and I’m really bad with girls, and people, so…” what was it with boys and wasting air?  Though she was impressed that someone had picked up her real gender.  For a race that seemed to primarily divide each other through gender, they weren’t able to pick up hers very easily.  Then she noticed that Lakshya was walking away.  Abbey caught his arm.  He looked at her in confusion.

“Abbey, finally, Karuna didn’t think you’d come out,” said Indu from behind her. There was that rough sharpness in her voice that she sometimes used on Karuna when she was yelling at her.  “Where are you going by the way?”

Abbey pulled Lakshya to show him to her.  Indu glared at the guard, and Abbey had to tighten her grip so he wouldn’t run away again.  If Lakshya was going to be a guard then he needed to learn how to be strong.

“That’s not an answer,” said Indu after a pause.  Abbey pointed at Lakshya and then pointed into the building. “Oh, yeah, sure, you can join us Lakshya.  Abbey doesn’t eat much anyway.”

They headed inside, Abbey only letting go of the human once they were in.  Eating someone else’s food was a good start to saying she accepted his apology and maybe begin a friendship.  She would bring some of the meet from the mountain goat she had hidden in the cave.  That way she would start a camaraderie with someone in the guard.  She needed to take this seriously and start becoming a part of the village.  That was the best way to get herself invested in the humans, to be true to her new calling and to replace her old tribe.

Lakshya might not be the perfect human, but he was her best bet of making a friend.  They would become friends and she would worm herself in by becoming a mentor and helping train a young recruit to be strong.  Maybe the humans would even learn something. 

“Abbey!” shouted Karuna, the door being trust open.  Lakshya made as if to hide behind her. Abbey had a lot of work to do with him.  But he was loyal, in his own special way.  He had stood up to her for a few seconds after seeing her take on the other guards.  Really, running away was his best bet then, and he did bring the village down on her. “Why do you have a stuffed yak?”

Abbey pointed at Lakshya.  Karuna then turned on Lakshya, looking a little angry.

“Why did you give a yeti a stuffed yak?” asked Indu, herding them so they would help with the food.  The human then plucked the stuffed animal from Abbey’s arm and walked away.  Abbey got to setting the table. 

“Girls like stuffed animals,” said Lakshya softly.  There was a prolonged silence, ended by almost every human but Lakshya laughing almost hysterically.  Abbey spent the rest of the night watching the humans bound through what she was able to identify as playful ribbing she had thought was going on the night before. It was very entertaining, and after Kshama supported Lakshya by making fun of Karuna and Abbey at the same time, and after the old woman was actually nice to the boy, he felt comfortable to start ribbing with them.

The only thing is that he seemed to be confused enough to think she a boy now too.  He tried to apologize and take the yak back, but Abbey held it tighter to her, and everyone had a good laugh.  By the end of the day Abbey was feeling better about her situation with the humans.  She could do this.  She had a small meltdown.  But she was doing the right thing.  She knew who she was.  She had her own code to go by.  She would uphold it and bring honor to Karuna. 

She had some work to do, but she was sure everything would turn out great in the end.


	10. Pretty

‘Christmas’ morning found Abbey drawing a picture for Lakshya.  She probably wouldn’t get it to him until the next day, but she did need to get it done.  They had already had the morning ritual.  Lakshya hadn’t been able to come; he had something with his family or something.  Apparently he did hunt.   Abbey could work with that.  But the morning had been interesting.  The food had been rich; Abbey couldn’t eat much of it, and most of the foods’ smell was enticing.  Too rich for her really, sometimes all Abbey wanted was some of her old unsalted or tampered with meats, but it all did smell so wonderful, even the meats seemed to call to her.

“Take it Kshama.  The people of the village will thank you, and half the information on my last book came from you,” said Seth.

“I do not know much about yetis,” said the old woman. Seth laughed, he was helping cut up some sort of healing herb.

“My last book wasn’t about yetis. I do other work.  I told you that.  Besides, I’m sure I’ll need your observation for my next one.  I’ve already been picking Abbey’s mind for the last few weeks,” said Seth, meeting Abbey’s eyes and giving her a nod.  Abbey nodded back before she reached for the color pencils.  She planned on using a little paint too, but more for enhancement in parts than anything else. 

Seth had come over a little earlier than they usually met to do meditation with her, coming just before Karuna left to get ready for the tests he’d been complaining about all morning until Indu yelled at him that they were celebrating Christmas and he was to be happy, plus the tests being the day after Christmas was all his fault anyway.  Abbey still didn’t understand why karuna had to take these classes, just that he had to go to a computer lab to do it, and she wasn’t allowed there since she could do the same thing to the computers that she did for the guns.

Meditation had gone very well.  Seth thought it was because she’d been more at peace than usual.  Abbey wasn’t sure if that was true, she had begun to deal with her problems with the humans and maybe come up with some ideas on how to deal with it. Mostly by barreling forward and not questioning herself. 

“Abbey stretched her hand and looked down on her new gloves.  Indu said she’d had seen them in the local clothes shop and then added her own embellishments.  Now little stitches made up icicles and snowflakes.  She’d also gotten a book from Karuna, well several books, but he’d borrowed some from below the mountain from a library and she had to return them.  One book was hers to keep though, it had almost no words and was filled with beautiful photographs of snowflakes, Abbey had just glanced through it, but she planned on taking more time on it later.  Kshama had gotten her small hunting knife. 

Still, Abbey kinda thought the gloves were her favorite.  It was silly.  She had made perfectly functional gloves.  But these fit better than her old gloves, and they had the most intriguing design.  Not that the design meant anything, but it was like her pictures.  There were only so many times she could spend her free time sketching what she remembered from her past and call it practice.  It was more than that.

It was not right to lie too even yourself, especially yourself.  The designs and pictures might be frivolous, but they were beautiful to her.  She loved them.  Maybe she was more like a human girl then she had first thought. 

“You like my gloves?” asked Indu, sitting next to her.  She had changed clothes.  She had been wearing pajamas for the first part of the morning.  Now she was wearing a dress of red and gold that wrapped around her tightly, showing off her figure and not looking very practical. Despite that Abbey could see the appeal in wearing it.  It was gorgeous.  Abbey almost wanted to try it on herself.  It wouldn’t fit her, and it was the wrong color, but it was so pretty. “Abbey?”

Abbey shook her head and wrote “pretty” on her pad.  It was one of the words Karuna made sure she knew how to write about right away.  Indu laughed.

“You know, for a yeti who tackles Karuna whenever he calls you a girl, you act a lot like a girl sometimes,” said Indu.  Abbey lifted her thumb, middle finger, and pinkie and flipped Indu off.  The girl laughed. “Did you have a girl in your old tribe?”

Abbey nodded.  She took off her gloves and then reached into the folds of her armor and unclasped the moon crystal necklace.  Indu reached out toward it and Abbey quickly pulled away. 

“Wow, moon crystal, isn’t that rare?” asked Seth as he came over toward them.  Abbey nodded, cradling the moon crystal and tracing each piece. 

“She must have really liked you. What did you give her in return?” asked Indu.  Abbey shook her head and Indu looked at her like she was insane. “You didn’t give your girl anything?  No wonder she… ow.”

Kshama had hit her apprentice over the head with her cane.  Abbey was glad.  She didn’t really want to know how the teen would have finished that sentence. Instead she quickly sketched Pyry and then herself.  Then she ran into a glacier.  How she supposed to show what she meant?

“She’s bigger than you?” asked Indu.  Abbey shook her head.  That would make no sense.  Every yeti was bigger than she was.

“In other tribes, the one who asks the other to bond with them is the one who gives the gift as a symbol,” said Seth. “In yeti culture genders are unimportant.  Females are equally strong as males, and even though the female carries the child, the baby needs both its parents presence to survive until it’s born,” said Seth.

“But he gets insulted when Karuna calls him a girl,” Indu protested, picking up something with spikes on it and bringing it to go through her hair.

“He’s from a warrior tribe.  What he references when talking about what girls do is probably insulting to him,” said Seth with a shrug.  “Well, I need to get going.  I’ll see you girls around.  I’ll see you tomorrow Abbey, usual spot?”

Abbey nodded and waved to Seth while he left. 

“So, you haven’t seen anything about girls that you like?  What is it about us that makes you so..?” Indu seemed to lose what she was going to say and started to rip at her hair.  Abbey slipped her necklace back on and then put on her gloves. 

It took her a moment to remember how to spell what she wanted to say, but then she grabbed her sketch book and wrote ‘weak’.  Indu threw her spiky thing at her and glared.  Abbey leaned over and picked up the thing, not sure if she should give it back to the human. 

“Give me back my brush,” snapped Indu.  Abbey handed it back carefully and watched as it was snatched out of her hands. “Girls are plenty strong.  Just because we’re not violent brutes who think the only strength there is, is bashing each other’s brains out.  I mean, Kshama and I are healers.  Without us half the village would be dead.”

Abbey shrugged and Indu huffed in disgust.

“It might be unimportant to a race that heals themselves, but humans need a bit of help, even with something as simple as a cut or infection,” Indu snapped.  Abbey thought about it and then nodded.  She supposed Indu had a little bit of a point.  While the females of this village, and probably all human females, seemed to take the jobs that Abbey saw as weak, they weren’t, not really.  Alright, the guards called females weak, and Karuna even joked about it, but females actually did the more useful jobs in the village. 

Seth had said he envied and believed the women and men working the fields were the most crucial to their survival, and in this village that was probably true.  Humans ate meat, but mostly from domesticated animals, hunting was more of a pastime, and they needed the vegetables, fruits, and grains to survive.  That didn’t stop female humans from being weak, but maybe being weak wasn’t as bad as she thought, or even humans thought, maybe she should see it more as human females being the support system, and thus just as important to human life.  Their jobs were crucial, not just menial work the tribe gave them so they could still feel some sense of importance.

Abbey wrote down “teach” and showed it to Indu.  Indu stared at it a moment and then took a pencil and drew a question mark on the page.  Abbey pointed her pencil at the girl.

“Teach you to be like me?” asked Indu, slowly brushing her hair. “Oh, teach you how to be like a girl?”

Abbey nodded and Indu laughed.

“Karuna’s going to make fun of you.  Guys aren’t supposed to act like girls,” said Indu flatly.  Abbey shrugged, not commenting that girls weren’t supposed to act like guys either.  Instead she sketched Karuna and Indu and then drew and equal sign.  Indu laughed at that too.  “Fine, is there anything about girls you do like?”

Abbey nodded immediately and then quickly rewrote “pretty” and showed it to Indu.

“Oh, like your necklace,” said Indu.  Abbey nodded and then pointed at her gloves. “The gloves are more practical than anything, but I’m glad you like the embellishments.  Alright, fine, what do you want to do first?”

Abbey carefully took the brush from the human’s hand and then pointed at her hair.  Indu looked a little freaked out, but she handed over the brush. 

“Just be careful.” Abbey nodded and carefully took some of the human’s hair into her hand.  As she carded carefully through the human hair, she sort of wished she could do it with her own.  It would be nice to get all of the tangles out of her long hair and get it shiny and straight like Indu got hers.  Abbey was sure her hair would be even prettier than.  She imagined running a brush through it, making it shinny, really bringing out the rose and blue streaks through her hair. 

At some point Indu started talking to her, not just the one or two word answers and questions she’d been doing the last three weeks, or the angry offensive she’d taken with Abbey this morning.  Now the human was gossiping with her.  When they went for a walk to cool Abbey off on Kshama’s orders, Indu had actually started gossiping.  It was strange.  Just one little act on Abbey’s part had gotten back the camaraderie that Abbey was afraid she’d lost at some point.  She had thought the other girl had given up on her after Abbey had run away and reacted badly to being drugged.  But it seemed that Indu just needed permission to be a girl in front of Abbey.

Not that Abbey found all of the things Indu talked about interesting.  In fact, she knew none of the people outside her small circle of human friends, so half the people Indu told her about made no sense.  Which on reflection was a good thing, because as a healer, Indu knew a lot of the villagers dirty snow and she had no problem telling Abbey about it.  Abbey decided that she was never telling Indu anything she didn’t want the rest of the village to know, because while she didn’t talk as much as Karuna, and her body movements were distracting, she did talk about things of more substance than Karuna, and it wasn’t the nice sort of substance.  It was actually probably stuff that Indu shouldn’t be talking about it. 

Karuna found them later painting Indu’s nails.  Indu was talking about how it was a shame they couldn’t paint Abbey’s nails, but they would do so when Abbey got a hold on her ability to hold the cold inside herself.  Karuna had predictably broken out laughing, so Abbey froze his feet to the ground. 

The night ritual was simple enough, meals were very important to all human holidays like yeti celebrations, and certain food sounded like it was important to the night.  Abbey froze all of their hot chocolate when they got it ready while Kshama told them stories about Christmas’s back when she was a girl.  She wasn’t sure was the point was of heating chocolate and then having her freeze it into slush, but they claimed it was so she didn’t turn the chocolate into hard ice.

All in all Christmas was nice, and Abbey used her free time afterwards to finish up her picture for Lakshya.  The next day she slept in as usual and after meditation she went to secure her goat, mostly she froze some meat, feeling as if she wouldn’t be able to stomach the spiced, cooked meat that Indu made for a few days at least. 

As time went by things started to fall back into place again.  It turned out that Lakshya had been assigned with her, and she spent a lot of her later morning hanging out with either Karuna or Lakshya.  Lakshya at first clearly wasn’t sure what to think; especially when Abbey made it clear she was taking over his training.  He spent some time getting laughed at as Abbey basically beat him to the ground their first few lessons, but then Abbey challenged them and then showed them how they did against her.  Oddly enough it got some of the more decent humans to show Lakshya how to properly hold and wield a gun.

Then her new human boss had her teach a class from three until four on fighting without guns.  It was interesting, she started to pick the human style as she did so, and while humans would never be able to fight yetis with only physical fighting, but it could be useful against other humans, and the guards certainly enjoyed learning it.  In the end it actually was the icebreaker Abbey needed to be truly accepted into their ranks. 

Her friendship with Indu was taking off.  It was a little strange to watch Karuna and even Indu herself try to wrap their minds around Abbey learning “girly” practices.  The thing was, the more Abbey learned, the more she wanted to know.  Yeah, a lot of their practices and the way girls were apparently were supposed to be completely obsessed with their image. That wasn’t right, but, it was also completely fascinating.  Watching Indu touch up her face and talk about the most shallow of opinions and facts about life like they were just as important as her healing powers was completely confusing. 

Especially seeing as Indu would talk about serious things at the drop of a hat also.  She would be talking about perfume, and then she’d be talking about the woman who couldn’t get out of her bed because of what humans called “the winter blues”.  It was head spinning to say the least, but Abbey had a better idea of why human men had such a hard time understanding women.  Though Abbey had to admit that even human men confused her sometimes too.

“Hey Abbey, you’re up early,” said Indu as Abbey entered their house around nine.  Abbey nodded.  She hadn’t been able to sleep.  It happened every once in a while. “It’s alright; we’re just finishing up here.”

Abbey nodded and entered in.  Mostly she’d come to see if she could read one of those books that Karuna had gotten her.  The old man that was being treated glared at her.  But Abbey ignored him and went to her book.

“Hey, Abbey, come help me with the weave,” said Indu.  Abbey looked up from her book.  She’d just started to write down the words she wasn’t sure of their meaning, even by using the context.  She wrote her ideas of what she thought they meant, sometimes drawing a quick picture to trigger her memory.  Still, the book she’d picked up was a little over her head.  She should probably work on a different one first.

It didn’t take long for Abbey to get the weave Indu wanted her to do.  It wasn’t difficult, it was for durability and practibility so there were no colors or beautiful designs she needed to weave in. 

“So I was just thinking she needed to get over it.  I mean, I know some women are conservative or whatever, but it’s tradition for us as a people to not bother a girl about her partners and there’s a drink to take the day after to take care of any problems.  But, whatever, we try to get civilized and some of us become even worse, I swear,” said Indu.  From what Abbey could see, the human was talking to her work.  Except whenever Abbey had tuned her out before, that had been the moment the human had started asking actual questions from her. “Did you have that problem in your old tribe?”

Abbey paused.  How did she explain that most yetis were mainly attracted to those of their own gender and were encouraged to share a bed with those of the same gender except when they must reproduce.  Males and females did interact and often there was a bit of trouble here and there, but usually an unexpected child was discovered only after the babe had died from not having their father near them.

Since Abbey wasn’t sure how she could possibly draw this, she just shook her head.

Indu snorted and nodded. “Yeah, I figured.  I mean, you wouldn’t be ignored because you didn’t plan on leaving this village.”

Abbey watched in fascination as Indu stabbed at her work in anger.

“Of course then you had boy genius who was lined up to be trained to leave this village.  But, I mean, if I leave too, why should he send anymore he gets in America if I’m gone. Since Karuna’s parents died, no one shows any interest in him beyond his grades.  As long as he’s still a shoe in for college then they don’t care what he does.  They give him a place to stay and a monthly allowance, and that’s all they think that’s all he needs to feel indebted to us.  I mean, the only other person he’d actually feel indebted to outside of me would be is Kshama and she’s not going to last much longer,” said Indu bitterly.

“Watch your tongue girl,” said Kshama.  Though she didn’t move from across the room so the offense wasn’t so bad.  Of course, Abbey was routed to the spot?  What did Indu mean?  She hadn’t heard anything about Karuna leaving.  Why would he leave?  Why would anyone, human or yeti, leave their village?  That was horrible.  Humans were horrible. 

And why would the village be pushing for her friends to leave.  Seth going off for the summer was bad enough.  This… Abbey had no idea what to call this. 

“Oh, ah, it’s okay Abbey.  Nothing’s set in stone yet.  Karuna might end up taking all his college courses here and become someone like Seth.  And he won’t be leaving for a while anyway.  He still has some courses he has to take.   And if he leaves, you have me.  Better yet, if we throw enough of a fit, they’ll send you with him.  I think you’ll like the states.  Apparently they’ve had a treaty with monsters much longer than we have, though they have their own weird take on how to handle that.  But, I mean, it’s better than us, for one thing, they’ve had enough culture integration that they have volumes of text and thousands of monster races identified.  All we knew before we got internet was yetis, mountain giants, and those six legged things that you meet when you get too far down the mountain,” said Indu in a hurry. Abbey still didn’t understand.  Why was the village trying to get rid of Karuna.

“Um, so, you know how you and Seth have the day off tomorrow?  We’re planning on taking you snowboarding!” said Indu, her voice almost cracking near the end. Abbey glared at her and then sent a little ice chill at her when the human took away her sketch pad. “You know how to snowboard right?”

Abbey shrugged.  That sounded like something up her alley, but she couldn’t be sure.  Humans had weird names for some of the things they did. 

“Um, it looks like this.”  Abbey leaned in, and she realized why Indu had never stolen her sketch pad before.  While Abbey thought there was something to Karuna’s painting, Indu’s was just bad. Indu rolled her eyes.  “You attach a board to your feet and go down the mountain sideways.  It’s really fun.  There’s this nice setup to the east of us.  It’s a little bit of a walk, but completely worth it…”

And Indu was into her next bit of gossip.  Abbey considered trying to make her go back to the whole “Karuna” was leaving thing.  But the human teen only really talked to her when she was gossiping, and when Abbey tried to backtrack and Indu didn’t want to, Indu would stop talking, or end their session with some sort of made up thing she had to do.  Plus, at worse Abbey could ask Seth, who would feel she had the right to know and either tell her, or pressure her friends to tell her until they felt too guilty to keep it in.

Still, the little things she learned about humans.  Sending their people away.  What was wrong with them?  Didn’t they want to build up their tribe.  Abbey shivered in disgust, but she kept to her work.  She had chosen this life knowing that she was going to be working with the enemy.  She had no one to blame for her situation but herself, and she wasn’t going to disgrace herself by going back on her word.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t secretly wish there was some way to go back to the good old days.  Back when she had a tribe and everything was right.  She’d even have a better idea of who she might not regret killing.  But that was a stupid thought.  There was no point dwelling on the past.  She must deal with the future, no matter how uncomfortable or angry it made her. 

 


	11. Mountain Giant

Abbey loved snowboarding.  She had done it before, not with the things they attached to her feet, or the obnoxious boots, but she had made what her people called an “foot sled” and hers she had just made of ice. Still, Abbey had a lot of fun.  Karuna had pouted when she hadn’t had any trouble balancing, apparently he had thought humans were the only ones to figure out one of the fastest ways to go down a mountain and had expected her to be like a child learning the trick and to spend most of her time on her back and butt.  Instead Abbey had beat him down to the “starting point” almost every time so far. 

Lakshya had gone for “skis” instead.  Two sticks on his feet that Abbey’s people only usually used when going down or across almost flat areas, and then they usually had their heels free.  But he was fast enough and could keep up with them pretty well.  Indu snowboarded too, but she had spent half her time inside doing--something.  Abbey hadn’t followed her.  The small yeti was finally out in her element; she wasn’t going to voluntarily go inside when most of her friends were finally spending a significant amount of time outside and doing something active.  Granted, snowboarding down the mountain only to get on a “lift” to go back to the “top” wasn’t productive.  But they were moving and having fun, and that seemed to be the point of the exercise so who was Abbey to criticize. 

They ended up staying the day, and even Abbey was feeling exhausted as they took the long trek back to the village.  They went with a group of villagers, some from other villagers close to hers, and none of them gave her funny looks.  Though that might have been because she almost looked human.  The hood in combination with the lower face mask meant there was only a sliver of left for her to see, though her purple eyes and blue skin were a dead giveaway, in the dim light that was hard to see even if someone had tried to talk to her. 

Abbey ended up carrying Indu for a little bit, the silly thing had twisted her ankle, apparently she had knocked her leg the wrong way near the end of the day, and that was the reason she retreated to the cabin the last time.  Indu hadn’t appreciated being thrown over Abbey’s shoulder, in fact, she had protested at first.  Which was silly.  Maybe Indu could still walk, but she was slow and holding them back, and it wasn’t any trouble for Abbey, as long as the human didn’t squirm.  Abbey was a yeti, a small one, but still ten times stronger than a human. 

But eventually the teen had become resigned to her fate, and now was falling asleep on Abbey’s back.  Lakshya had wanted to ‘ride’ Abbey if Indu didn’t want to.  Abbey had glared at him, but at least his whining had been justified.  Humans really were finicky creatures, smart in many ways, but their bodies so weak and needing so much care.  Lakshya had really thrown off his sleep patterns even worse then it normally was by spending his one day off by snowboarding all day. 

That didn’t mean she would have carried him.  She just understood where he was coming from.  Abbey herself had started to feel a little sleep deprived too.  Her schedule cut out more hours of sleep then she had though, but she didn’t want to give up any time she took relaxing in the night or spending time in the afternoon with her friends and training the guards. 

Really, being with humans was exhausting.  They had so many different things going on around her.  Abbey hadn’t realized how split she had come until she started to feel the exhaustion. 

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” said Indu, apparently waking up enough to complain.  Abbey was getting happier and more secure in keeping her gender a secret.  Well, from most humans.  Lakshya she had let know he got it right the first time, mostly because he had wanted her to be a girl.  Apparently he thought that a girl, even a yeti girl, as a guard was inspiring.  Abbey might have hit him for calling her a girl.  After listening to one of the old woman’s rants about random complaints, the use of the word “girl” instead of  “woman” or in Abbey’s case “female” did seem rather insulting.  Still, if Lakshya was anything, he was accepting. 

Abbey supposed she shouldn’t be surprised by the gender thing.  Human females were truly weaker than males.  Perhaps if all yeti females had been born as small as Abbey then males would have also been the only warriors, women seen as less important and shuffled off to do the more humiliating, common tasks, that were essential and often seen as jobs given to those no longer able to fight to keep them in the community.  After all, it hadn’t been too long ago that yetis Abbey size had been seen as useless and often abandoned or killed by the tribe.  It had taken someone great to show them differently. 

Maybe Abbey’s betrayal had reversed that though.  Maybe they now thought that her size yetis were curses, that the one before her had been a fluke.  After all, even after all her achievements and ability to fight, most of it had been gained by using more a cowardly and supervise fighting style than her tribesmen.  She had never been as good as them. 

“Abbey,” said Indu, knocking her fist on the yetis head.  Abbey moved as if to dump the human, loosening her hold and making Indu.  The teen squeaked and held Abbey as if she was trying to choke Abbey.

“Where’d you go Abbey?” asked Lakshya as he turned around and started walking backward.  Abbey titled her head to the side.  Since she was carrying Indu all ways for her to communicate had been effectively destroyed.  She couldn’t really contribute to a conversation holding someone.  Though it was rude to be in a group of creatures, regardless of kind, and not be present.

“Abbey sometimes wanders into his own head,” said Karuna with a shrug.  He had the sense to watch where he was going.  It would be one thing for Abbey to walk backwards; she could use the snow to sense that she wasn’t running into anything, Lakshya however was getting closer and closer to running into the man holding a torch in front of them. “ Oh, and Abbey, I told you so.”

Abbey titled her head to the other side.  Sometimes humans insisted on being vague.  They should just state what they meant instead of skating around with their words. 

“That Indu would start nagging you if you started learning how to be girly and sensitive,” said Karuna.  Abbey rolled her eyes.  If she could she would point out that human males also expected things from her that didn’t interest her in the slightest.  Like being interested in idiotic, hot looking sports.  Abbey had long ago decided that watching sports wasn’t really her thing.  It was one thing to watch two warriors of strength and skill fight, it was another to watch humans or ‘monsters’ run around after a ball getting sweaty and being as hands off as possible.  That was boring and the rules were so numerous that Abbey couldn’t see how it could even be fun to play, let alone watch.

Instead Abbey just shrugged.  She retained that while most of what Indu nattered at her was rather idiotic and useless.  There were little gems about the village and the world outside the village that Abbey thought was interesting and relevant to what Abbey might need to know.  Also that little fact that Karuna was eventually leaving that Abbey still needed to confront the human boy over soon.  Plus, Abbey liked Indu’s hair, there was something very soothing about it.  Abbey had even gotten a comb the other day from Indu, though she was waiting until the next time she disappeared and took a swim to attempt the knots in her hair.  Experience taught her that waiting until she was swimming was the less painful option for getting most of the knots out of her hair.

“Abbey has no problems expressing her more feminine side,” said Lakshya defensively.  Abbey glared at him, and Lakshya stopped talking about her thankfully, though mostly because he had bumped into the person behind him and now was apologizing and trying not to get burned.  The human he had bumped into him started yelling, and Karuna apparently found that hilarious and burst into loud laughter, Indu actually joining in with a few giggles. 

“See, Abbey, this is why you prescribe to gender roles.  Humans are very easily confused creatures.  We need all our roles to define people and any deviation confuses us.  You don’t want to be referred to by the wrong gender then don’t do girly things like brushing Indu’s hair or letting her prattle at you,” said Karuna. 

“Don’t be such a tool Karuna,” said Indu after she had finished with her giggling. “Abbey doesn’t care about gender labels anymore.  Yetis aren’t pigs like you guys.  And he doesn’t let me prattle for no reason.  He practices his writing and drawing when we have our chats.  When else is he going to be able to check his spelling and comprehension otherwise?  You are getting more and more classes so you’ll have summer free or whatever…”

“I thought it was because--“ Karuna was the one who ran into Lakshya this time.  Actually, it was sorta funny to watch, Abbey was sure it was the only place outside her lessons where she’d seen a human actually tackle someone.  Not that it was common for yetis, but when yetis got happy, excited, angry, sad or really anything in her tribe, they tended to become very physical.  Humans treated each other differently, leaving lots of space between them and the most violent greeting being a fist to shoulder bump, shoulder to shoulder bump, or a hug.  Humans were a bit sad that way. 

Abbey forced herself out of her musing to glare at the humans.  She also bounced Indu.  This was about the whole Karuna leaving thing, she was sure.  Which still sounded insane to her.  Humans kept throwing her through these weird facts about the way they lived.  Karuna smiled at her and Abbey just continued to glare. 

“It’s nothing Abbey.  Just something about my studies.  You know about those right?” asked Karuna.  Abbey nodded.  She would have had to have been blind, deaf on top of mute to have missed Karuna’s studies.  It was apparently his main job to learn things, and maybe leave one day, though Abbey still didn’t think the humans could be cruel enough to raise a child in their village with the intent of throwing them out. “Anyway, so I’m taking a bunch of tests and depending on that will decide what happens next fall.”

Abbey glared.  She had no idea what that meant.  She would ask later.  She was tempted to drop Indu and sign herself some answers.  Her notepad she had taken to write was pretty ruined after snowboarding and human eyes were weak even under the light of the moon and stars.  Still, she could still sign until someone told her what was going on. 

Tomorrow, she would ambush Karuna tomorrow and make him tell her what was going on.  Indu just had to have heard wrong, though from Karuna’s reaction to Seth’s slip up she was sure she wouldn’t like what they told her. 

Suddenly a cry went up near the beginning or their train.  Abbey looked up, but humans were already turning to run in the opposite direction.  Abbey tried to keep her feet under her as the humans jostled her, trying to see over the humans to what was going on.

“Come on, Abbey, we need to—“

“Giant!” shouted another human.  Abbey grabbed at where her spear was usually strapped to her back, and silently cursed when she remembered her friends had convinced her to leave it behind for the day.  Stupid, Abbey had become so complacent and sure in her abilities and the fact that the humans assured her this area was heavily guarded against yetis.  She should have known better though.  Hadn’t she killed wild, dangerous animals and even caught human rogues that sought to kill their own kind?  She had become naive and complacent living with the humans.  She needed to keep her mind and skill sharp, sharper than being a night guard or teaching fighting lessons to humans could make her. 

When Abbey turned, Karuna and Lakshya were looking at her, both ready to run away from danger, but waiting until they knew she would follow.  A glance of the two showed Abbey that Karuna was irritated and Seth was frightened but ready to leave. 

Abbey shouldered Indu off her back, the teen allowing herself to be maneuvered to the two males without a fuss.  She then pointed at them and away and then at herself and then toward the screaming.

“I can help,” said Lakshya, stepping toward her and trying to look brave.  Abbey glared at him.  The human was being extraordinarily stupid.  While she was happy he seemed to have grown a backbone, now she needed to reteach him how to pick his battles and when it was actually appropriate to take on impossible battles.  Another cry came from where all the humans were running from.  This one sounded fatal. 

Abbey shook her head and pointed to Indu before turning and running toward the beasts screams.  She hoped her friends would follow her direction.  Giants were gentle for the most part.  Only hunting for food, and easily accepting any creature that wasn’t violent toward it into its good graces.  They weren’t overly intelligent, but they weren’t like beasts.  They were quietly intelligent.  Not good for a conversation, but good company when Abbey went for her week of trials. 

But it wasn’t unheard of for a mountain giant to go beserk.  It would seem like, for no true reason, a giant would suddenly become frothing mad and kill anything that got in its way during its rampage.  Abbey had once taken down a giant that she had been with all week.  It hadn’t been a good experience.  She had been grievously wounded and the yetis were confused over her guilt at the situation.  The yeti might have been a friend, but he had clearly been a threat when Abbey had killed him.  She had done the right thing killing him.  If she had left him alive he could have become a threat to the tribe. 

Blood and a couple of bodies already painted dark splotches against the snow.  The giant growled and barreled toward the running and screaming humans.  One human tripped and was almost torn apart by the creatures teeth.  Abbey barreled into it.  She might weigh less than it, but she threw the move and was able to divert its goal. 

The human continued to scream, but Abbey glanced over to her just long enough to see that she at least had enough sense to run.  The giant seemed torn for a moment whether to go over the annoying screaming thing or at the thing that had attacked it.  When Abbey started to run toward the giant it growled and also started to barrel down toward her.  

Abbey caught the beast.  She centered herself, letting the weight of the giant push her deeper into the snow, and she caught the creatures hand in her and threw then beast to the ground.  She felt a smile briefly flicker across her face.  Small and weak she might be, but she hadn’t met a giant yet that she couldn’t beat in an arm wrestling match. 

The beast shook its head and Abbey stretched, trying to get her muscles moving again.  The giant’s arm caught her as she readjusted her stance.  Abbey felt her body fly back, unfortunately this was back toward where the humans had run.  The yeti quickly pushed herself up to run back toward the creature, this time she threw up a wall of ice.  The giant easily knocked it down, but it posed enough of force to slow the creature down a wif and threw it off balance.  Abbey kept running so that when she grabbed the giants hand in her arms she had enough momentum to jump and twisted, using enough force to pop the bone from the socket.  The beast yelled in pain, and went the grab her.  Abbey dodged and then kicked at the creatures elbow, there was a yell and a satisfying crack.  The creature screamed in pain and Abbey quickly found herself pinned under the creatures long clawed feet. 

Pain momentarily distracted her, but Abbey just stubbornly pushed it away as she pushed up on the bottom of the creature’s foot.  The thing roared and pushed down on her, pushing Abbey down into the snow, some flakes fell into her hood and nestled near her hair.  Abbey sucked in a calming breath, she had become hot fighting, something she hadn’t noticed until she felt the cool relief of the snow. 

With a burst of power, Abbey was able to throw the creature off of her.  She quickly retaliated.  Running over and then jumping the last bit to grab the creature’s fang in her hands.  A risky stupid move.  The giants flailed, screaming in pain as it tried to move it’s broken arms.  Abbey attempted to find enough purchase on her target to rip its gleaming tooth from its mouth.  The giant threw itself onto the ground, mouth wide as it tried to drive Abbey into its mouth.  Abbey felt the breath leave her body as her back slammed the ground, but she kept her feet firmly on the beast’s mouth, keeping it from biting her the best Abbey could accomplish. 

Abbey swore, crinkling her nose as the beast’s breath huffed hot and stagnant across her face and body.  With one last pull and twist the fang came loose, blood splattering her face even as the creature roared and stumbled away from her in blind pain.  Abbey stood, fang now in hand.  The creature then roared, angered beyond what little reason it had kept before this.  Abbey charged it, and with one mighty jump she was back in its face.  The creature tried to snap at her, but Abbey kept her prize in sight and with a sickening squelch and spray of liquid, she sunk the tooth into the beast’s left eye. 

Abbey could feel the beast’s life slip into her gloves and saw it leaving trails down it’s face.  The creature for just this moment was completely overwhelmed in pain.  Abbey took off one glove with her teeth.  Mountain giants might be able to withstand the coldest of weathers, but it was not of cold and freeze like yetis were.  It’s insides were warm, and they needed their thick fur to survive the cold mountain climate. 

Abbey intended to fill the beast’s warmth with cold and freeze the creature to death. 

Intense pain ripped into Abbey’s back.  The yeti gasped in pain and she belatedly felt her body slip and fall.  She crashed to the ground as thunder split into her head.  With a gasp Abbey realized what was happening.  More and more shots, gunfire, filled her head.  The giant suddenly had small holes bleeding red and Abbey felt her heart stop. 

The humans had found their guns and they were shooting, worse they were shooting at her.  Abbey’s feet started to take her away without thinking.  She threw up a snow cloud around her.  And she ran.  She didn’t look back and she didn’t stop until she came to a stone wall to slick for her to climb.  Abbey carefully buried herself into a snow drift. 

Something gripped at her heart. Humans said that they shivered when they got cold.  Abbey was shivering, but she wasn’t cold.  She couldn’t get cold.  The colder the weather got, the more powerful she got. 

The bruises had started to heal themselves, but now Abbey could feel the other wounds she acquired start to burn on her side.  Abbey manipulated the snow to press against the wounds.  The gun shot she was pretty sure had shattered a rib.  There were also a cut on her leg, and then it gouged deep into her arms.  She could feel the blood running from her body.  So she packed more snow closer and inside her armor until the ripped layer was bursting.

And still she shivered.  Tears started leaking down her face and Abbey didn’t know why. Why was she crying?  Now that she had time to think, it was obvious that she hadn’t been the one they were aiming for.  They had just been trying to protect their kind, and Abbey was pretty sure they had come from the opposite way that her humans had run to.  Humans did have ways to communicate over great distances.  Karuna had once tried to tell her how far away ‘America’ was, the place he took most of his lessons from, the distance had been too big for Abbey to even want to try and tackle. 

They hadn’t meant it.  Even if they had been aiming at her, it was because they thought she would be a threat after the giant was killed.

And yet the tears kept coming and shivers wracked her body.  Abbey didn’t like crying.  But Abbey needed to focus on healing.  Karuna would be worried.  Abbey forced herself to take several deep breaths.  She very carefully rolled to a sitting position, careful to move the snowdrift around her as she did so.  She didn’t want any human to shot her because they saw the snow moving oddly. 

The pain made it both easy and hard to meditate.  At least it made it easier to block the thoughts about why she was shaking and crying.  Silently Abbey ran herself though the basic meditation.  She paused for a moment.  Meditation meant looking inside herself and turning off everything else around her; she wouldn’t be ready for an attack if the humans or anything else attacked her.

Abbey pushed that thought away.  She was better than that.  She was skilled and trained, and there was a way to meditate and do it correctly, but also not be completely oblivious to the rest of the world. 

Her ice core handled delicately in her mental image.  Abbey sent out a small prayer to her ancestors the first time she finished going through the mediation.  When she realized what she was doing, Abbey went back to meditation, following a slightly different practice that Seth had done a few times before.  She wished she had some music.  He’d done meditation with music once.  The music wasn’t as good as the Himalayan Yak Band, but it had a certain charm to it that had worked well with the meditation.  It had this soothing lilt to it, that Abbey was sure she couldn’t just listen to it on its own. 

The sun came up and Abbey forced herself to her feet.  She wasn’t shaking anymore or crying, and her wounds were doing much better.  It was time to go and see her friends.  They would probably be worried sick.  Karuna would be worried at least.  Indu would be angry at her.  Kshama would hit her and make someone snuggle with her or something, uncaring now that she was better.  At worse the old woman would want to look her over because she had this new thing about wanting to know all about yeti healing and how their bodies were different than humans.  Seth might not have heard.  And Lakshya would be confused and not sure how to feel. 

So Abbey started walking.  She jumped a little when humans flanked her.  Abbey gave them a look.  She couldn’t help the limp in her gait.  The cut in her leg had been deep and had probably gone to the bone.  Abbey was lucky that it hadn’t bled out.  Didn’t help that she would need to spend some time in the arms of one of her friends or she would be having a very uncomfortable time that night at the watch. 

The guards didn’t support her.  One handed her back her glove, covered in blood and a little ruined, but it was hers.  Abbey took it and put it on, noticing how the humans appeared to be staring at her hand like it was about to attack them.  It was funny.  She was smaller than one of them by at least a good inch, but just the color of her hand made the blood run from his face.  Odd, especially since the humans had more yetis they were allied with than fighting against.

They left her when the guards from her village came to next to her.  These guards led her to the Kshama’s house where they knocked and Karuna tackled in and brought Abbey into the houses, fussing so much that Abbey didn’t hear what the guards said. Abbey was surprised to note that not only Seth was there but also Lakshya’s father was there. 

Abbey’s boss was there.  Well, that would certainly explain why the guards were there.  They must have told the other guards from nearby villages to be on the lookout for her so they could bring her back home. 

Kshama knocked on something and Karuna stopped bubbling though now Abbey could see that Indu was glaring at the yeti’s leg and where Abbey was holding her shattered rib. 

“How are you Abbey?” asked Kshama.  Abbey shrugged and flinched. “I should give you a thorough physical then.”

Kshama glared at Seth’s father.  Abbey shook her head.  She wasn’t going to let the old woman look at her.  Kshama was oddly hypocritical.  She thought women were strong, but she was the most adamant about them sticking to the roles they were assigned.  Instead Abbey reached out and made as if to snuggle Karuna, careful to feel her face from his bare skin. 

“We can’t hold this off,” said Seth’s father.  Abbey really should have at least learned his name.  She knew all the important guards names by now save his.  Even the second in command. “It’s probably best if he doesn’t come.”

“Yes, because this morning showed how well the villagers have come in their tolerance toward what is different this morning,” sneered the old woman. 

“And having him there in his condition is going to smooth things over?” demanded the old woman, swinging her cane.  Abbey caught it, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.  She cocked her head to the side, looking first at the old woman and then the head guard.  The old woman seemed to be searching for words, Seth’s father blushed as if embarrassed.  It was Karuna who finally told her what was going on.

“They want to throw you out of the village.”

 


	12. A Woman's Love

Abbey let the announcement sink in for a moment.  She was a little surprised to find that while she wasn’t surprised by the news, she knew some of the townsfolk didn’t like her, the fact they had all gotten together to get rid of her right after she saved them, hurt her more than she could express.  Stupid really.  How long did she think she would last in a village of humans?  Whether or not they had a treaty, there was still bad blood between yetis and humans.  The first treaty hadn’t been signed less than a hundred years ago.  Not all people liked yetis or that humans were making nice with them.  Abbey had sneered until she remembered how much her tribe was disgusted with the idea of making nice with the enemy. 

“Do you need to sit down Abbey?” asked Indu, grabbing her arm.  Abbey ripped it away and then looked for her sketch pad she kept in Kshama’s house. Seth was the one who finally handed it to her.  She took it a little more violently then she meant, ripping it from her teacher’s hands and quickly writing down just one word.

 _Saved_.

Everyone in the room tenses and Abbey glares out from under her hood.  She wants to rip something apart.  She saved the humans.  Not all of them, but a rampaging mountain giant can give even a full grown yeti a bit of trouble when it’s got madness running hot in its mind.  Maybe she hadn’t been the one to kill it, but she had been close, one thorough freeze of the beast’s insides and it would have been death, no cowardly human bullets needed.

“We know,” said Karuna slowly, taking a slow step toward her.  Abbey stepped away from him and glared harder.  Lakshya’s father sighed and massaged the creases between his eyebrows.  Lakshya just fell to his seat and buried his head in his arms.  Everyone stared at Abbey like if they blinked she would disappear. “Unfortunately no one really saw that, and when you ran away you threw ice at the guards from the Wall village.  And they have this thing against yetis that’s almost impossible to argue against because it’s like arguing with a brick wall.”

Abbey cocked her head even as she unconsciously reached for her shoulder.  She hadn’t even remembered throwing ice their way.  Were the guards lying?  And even if she did throw ice, could they blame her after they shot at her? 

“Are you hurt?” asked Indu, moving for Abbey.  The yeti allowed her to come to her, but stopped her from getting under her armor so the human wouldn’t burn her hand on Abbey’s skin.  Or freeze it.  The terminology was hard to understand with humans sometimes.  They used words oddly at the most inappropriate instances. “What happened?”

Abbey quickly mimed shooting a gun.  Karuna and Seth flinched and Seth’s father looked even more stressed.

“They forgot to mention that part,” Indu said.  She was smiling for some reason, though there was something wrong with the smile.  It reminded Abbey of the smile her old trainer used to give before someone got their butt handed to them. 

A knock on the door had them all jumping.  Lakshya’s father was off to see who it was instead of Kshama.  The old woman was walking toward Abbey, and Abbey quickly wrote _fine_ and showed it to the two.  Abbey watched, a little bit of laughter tickling her lungs as both looked at the word like they were going to burn holes in it.

“Are you sure?” asked Indu, her expression harsh.  Abbey wasn’t sure if the human wanted to heal her, or if Indu had finally been pushed to the edge where she would use violence against those that hurt her friends.  It was too bad that humans hadn’t developed a system for challenging those people who irritated you to a duel.  They used to, but apparently humans were too pigheaded or clumsy in their fighting styles, and they always ended those fights with one dying.  So the practice for them had been dropped. 

So, in the interest of not losing her friend to whatever prison was, or having one of them banished from human lands like she had been thrown from the yetis, Abbey just drew both Karuna and Indu into a hug, burying her head in Indu’s neck since the human had a scarf draped across it.  Indu shivered under Abbey’s attention.  But even as Abbey wondered if she should retreat, two more sets of arms wrapped around her. 

Lakshya’s father cleared his throat, and the humans reluctantly let go of Abbey and turned to face him.

“If Abbey is going to face the village then now is the time.  The village is getting itself worked up and is threatening to turn into an angry mob,” said the man.  Anger and even fear filled the room.  Lakshya tried to break it with a chuckle.

“What are they going to ‘grab their torches and pitchforks?’” asked Lakshya, rolling his eyes and using what Karuna called air quotes.  Lakshya’s father did not find his son’s comment funny.  Lakshya then seemed to stiffen before he looked in concern to Abbey.  Slowly they started to leave Kshama’s house.  Abbey bit back a groan.  The places the mountain giants nails and teeth had scrapped felt hot and her ribs still pained her. 

Lakshya’s father stopped her just outside the door and drew her away, waving Karuna to walk on when the human looked back in confusion.  Karuna made a face at being told what to do.  But Abbey copied her bosses movements, and Karuna rolled his eyes and walked away.  Abbey then turned to Lakshya’s father and cocked her head to the side.  The man sighed. 

“It might come to the point where you need to retreat,” the man explained. Abbey nodded.  That’s why she was trailing behind everyone.  As much as she wanted to confront, and probably yell at, her accusers, she was still mute and most of the village didn’t know her limited sign language or how to read.  If things started becoming violent then Abbey would run to her old cave and wait for one of her friends to tell her what to do next. “Most of the guards support you, and will believe your side of the story, especially since a couple of villagers from here have testified they saw you fighting the giant.  But if it does go south I’ve instructed that my guards to lead you away and act as a guard.”

Abbey immediately stiffened in offense and shook her head, turning away from the man to write down “ _cowardly_ ” and showed it to him.  The guard just huffed and shook his own head; he looked drawn and backed into a corner.

“Listen Abbey, the guard isn’t just to protect you; it’s to protect the humans.  What they are saying is insulting and…” he trailed off, and Abbey realized what he was saying.  The guards supported her, but they were also protectors of the village, and even if they liked Abbey and thought she was in the right, they would stop the yeti from destroying or hurting any of the humans under their charge.  Abbey thought about this before she nodded her head in understanding.  That was actually very honorable of the humans.  Insulting to her, maybe, but Abbey had a feeling Lakshya’s father was very deliberate in all he did.  At the very least, cautious.  Abbey had no idea what Karuna had done to convince the man to put a yeti in his guard, but then again, he could have thought that the best defense against a yeti attack was a yeti.

“Alright,” said the man, and then he started shifting.  Abbey started to see where Lakshya got his awkward demeanor, and even his reluctance to jump into the fray of a fight. “I want you to follow my lead, and to try and follow I tell you.  Not just what I order you to do, but also take into consideration any suggestions I might offer.  I know we haven’t met enough for you to trust my judgment, and my son has at best probably created a very confusing picture of who I am, but I ask you this as a favor not just to me, but to yourself.”

Abbey cocked her head to the side before she slowly nodded in agreement.  She had no idea what the human meant, but she was sure that making him repeat himself wasn’t going to help things. 

The village square was a mess.  Guards came to flank Abbey, and she realized why it was important that they stay with her.  A small stand had been placed in the center of town where two angry, middle aged humans were shouting and filling the crowd around them with angry energy.  Some humans were abstaining from joining in verbally, they still looked angry and their attention was riveted on the couple, but Abbey hoped that their refraining to shout and goad each other toward her death meant they had chosen to side with her. 

The guards guided her through the glacier of people, using as little force as they could, barking commands at the humans and only shoving when it was absolutely necessary.  Seth actually snuck in between the guards to Abbey as they made their slow trek to the stage.  The rest of her friends tried to follow them, but the crowd seemed to shallow and spit Abbey’s group out with little room for anyone else to move. 

Finally they made it so Abbey could face her accusers.  Somehow Lakshya’s father was already there.  He was firm backed, any hesitation he had been showing before wiped from his face and countenance. 

“The filth would have us believe that he turned his back on his people on a whim and only wants to help us now against his own kind,” shouted the female.  She had worked herself into almost a froth, and didn’t seem to notice that Abbey had made it her.  Abbey listened in fascination as the human seemed to pull bullshit out of the air.  It was true that some of what she said had a truth, such as Abbey had left her people and she would fight her own king, she was almost sure of that, but she hadn’t done it on a whim.  Not really.  No, Abbey hadn’t refrained from killing Karuna on a whim; it had been more complicated than that.  Hadn’t it? 

But how was it?  Abbey hadn’t really made a decision on why she couldn’t kill Karuna.  And she had put a lot of thought into it.  She hadn’t had a choice really.  The hot season, summer, she had spent alone with only her thoughts chasing themselves.  Regret had been where her mind had strayed the most, and as much as Abbey tried to tell herself she couldn’t kill the human because he hadn’t done anything to her and was so much weaker than her, that in her eyes killing humans was a weakness.  She couldn’t convince herself.  She had killed weaker beasts, yaks and mountain goats without worry of being cowardly. 

“Look at him,” shouted the human male, pointing to Abbey.  Abbey snapped her head to look the human male in the face.  He was dressed thinly for the weather, his thin dark beard gave him an almost manic look as his eyes were as wide as his mouth. “Look in his eyes.  You can see where the little humanity that is left in him feels guilty.”

Abbey stiffened in confusion.  Humanity?  She wasn’t human, so it stood to reason she didn’t have humanity, whatever that was.  So far that had been a saying that Abbey hadn’t heard, or at least hadn’t absorbed and remembered.  Something struck on the side of the head.  Abbey caught it as it dropped and then turned away almost threw it from her because of the smell.  A guard caught her arm and took the rotten tomato from her.

“See how he turns so quickly to violence,” said the woman, leaning toward Abbey from where she stood and sneering at the yeti. 

“In fairness, the villagers threw it first,” said one of Abbey’s guard.

“And yet you flank him to make sure he hurts no one,” spat the female.

“And I set up guards all around this square to discourage the humans from turning violent and hurting not only our yeti citizen but each other,” Lakshya’s father said evenly.  Both male and female criers took a step back on their stage as if the leader of the guard had said something repugnant. Then the male inhaled and looked down on Lakshya’s father with what almost looked like true worry. 

“Dayaram, you can’t possibly think this monster is a true citizen,” he said.  The man then closed his eyes and a tear fell down his face as Lakshya’s father nodded. “He is an abomination.  A mistake and damned creature that can never be human.”

Abbey once against found herself confused.  Why did these humans keep making reference to her being or becoming human in any way?  She was a yeti, not human blood ran through her blood no matter how small she was.

“No matter how we try or wish, he will always be a violent creature.  Even if he wished to change, his very nature will lead him to betray us,” said the man slowly.  Abbey found herself tensing.  No, betrayal wasn’t in her people’s nature.  Yetis were fiercely loyal to their own kind then humans.  Their clans meant everything to them.  It was why Abbey’s inability to kill the enemy that had been driving them further up the mountain and encroaching on the land, stealing their resources, and then killing them had been such a blow.  Yes, they had thrown her out, but she had betrayed them first and in a manner that hadn’t been forgivable. 

How could these humans dare to judge her when it was becoming clearer and clearer they had no idea what a yeti was or what they were actually like.

“This is our punishment for setting a treaty with the yetis in the first place,” the woman said scornfully. “We allow ourselves to trade with the monsters and suddenly they think they own us and that we will allow them into our homes.  And they we were.  We allow ourselves to be corrupted by them, and then we are shocked when we are attacked by their kind and our people killed by giants.”

“We were attacked by giants long before we made the treaty with the yetis,” Lakshya’s father immediately intervened. He continued before either could say anything. “You cannot say that they caused the strife either.  Our ancestors invaded their land, we’re lucky to have been able to create a treaty with any of their tribes, especially one that even offers assistance to protect our own kind.  Abbey is not curse, he is a symbol of a progressing time where monsters and humans can live in peace instead of constantly fighting for power.”

The woman scoffed and the man shook his head sadly. “Dayaram your own good nature deceives you.  We live in a time more filled with strife and sin then anytime before it.  These yetis are another sign of how far we have fallen and allowed ourselves to be corrupted.  What will it take for you to see that we must drive these creatures from our lands?  So you not see the danger in keeping him?”

“What danger?” asked Seth. “I have lived and studied them all my life.  Yetis are different from us, yes.  But they are not evil.  They evolved as nature saw fit, and while they are a violent race, they are also an honorable one.  Abbey would not harm any of us.  He fought for the us yesterday once he realized we were in trouble.”

“He threw ice at our defending cities best fighters,” screeched the woman.  The man held a hand out as if even he thought she had gone too far.

“They shot him, and even with his enhanced healing he will still need our help to heal,” said Seth.  Both showed disdain and uncertainty at this. “Yetis need to share life force to heal major wounds.”

“See even now you point out how he steals from us in order to sustain himself.  Taking years of our lives for her own selfish goals,” said the man, looking down his nose at Abbey.  The yeti did not turn from his look, meeting his eyes. 

Seth just shook his head. 

“He never took what was not given,” said Seth evenly. “And life force does not work like that.  He is not stealing lives or years that we can live, he is sharing energy.  It is an exchange.  Yetis not only draw power from ice and cold, but from one another and their ancestors.  They have more cause to hate us for that than us who have forgotten our roots and ancestors.”

“The monsters have poisoned your mind,” said the man, his eyes becoming vacant. “You have spent so much time around them you have become lost to the truth of their nature and what they are doing to us and human kind.  The treaty with us should have been our first sign that we were signing our souls away.  Now we let a poor lost soul guide us on how we deal with yetis.  Telling us that we have to respect them and that they only have our best interest at heart.”

“I bring in significant funds to this village,” said Seth coldly.

“We functioned fine before you were born, Seth.  We will be fine after you’re gone,” said the man evenly.

Seth snorted at this and crossed his arms.

“”This town has always relied on the money brought in by those of us with the skills to go out in the world and make money out in the world,” said Seth darkly.

“A necessary evil, which is proven by the fact that our current academic star is the yeti’s friend.  But that only proves how being in contact with the corrupted outside world,” said the man.  His eyes trailed across the sea of humans crowded into the small space. “We are allowing the taint of the rest of the world to infiltrate our village and now that we can clearly see the effects on our village and we are being told to turn a blind eye.”

“We have let it infect us so deeply that it influences or very souls.  Our current healer became friends with the boy, and now look what she does.  Her parents talk about trying to push her to leave and she teaches the yeti perversion and puts herself at risk,” said the woman.

An angry yell of “what” sounded out from the crowd.  Clearly it was Indu’s indignant yell. 

“The yeti is male and yet he allows himself to be called Abbey,” said the human man, and then he sent a scathing look at Abbey.  Abbey simply let her head cock to the side.  What was it with humans and their obsession with gender?  Humans might need their stereotypes, but so far they’ve only seemed stick even yetis on the edge of cliffs.  How could they say it was right? “More than that we’ve heard he’s been picking up female habits.  He is a deviant and worse still a threat to our women.”

“Make up your mind.  Is he a deviant or a threat to women?” asked what sounded like Karuna.  Seth sent an irritated look in the direction Karuna’s voice had come from. 

“Gender is not an issue for yetis.  The way females are treated and their habits interested him and Indu decided to teach him,” said Seth, evenly.  Abbey tried to keep the anger from reaching her eyes.  They were calling her a deviant?  She was just trying to learn about humans and their ways.  She was sacrificing her own beliefs for them and they called her a deviant? 

Abbey hadn’t even seen these humans before.  How did they know anything about her?  They classified people.  They sent their own children away from them and then apparently leached off them.  Worse, they didn’t just send one of their own away, when they sent him away they thought they were sending him somewhere corrupt and evil.  That’s why Karuna didn’t have many friends.  It wasn’t just that he would be leaving, they thought he was also going to become something despicable, that where he was going would corrupt him.

How could they do that to their own blood?  To raise a babe with the intent of it being some sacrificial lamb.  It was barbaric, evil.  She shouldn’t have to deal with.  She shouldn’t have to try and wrap her mind around human concepts.  Now Abbey knew why yetis could never make peace with humans.  Should never make treaties with humans.  They weren’t right.  Yetis would never abandon a community member like this.  They wouldn’t call every snowflake the same or group them so stringently.  They did it with yetis Abbey’s size and it turned out that yetis her size could be normal, save the village, or end up having to be removed.

A hand touched Abbey’s shoulder and the yeti turned sharply toward the human.  She could feel the resentment and confusion at her situation tightening her shoulder and she wasn’t sure if it was a good thing that she didn’t have weapons on her.  On one hand it might have saved Lakshya’s father from Abbey instinctively gutting him, on the other hand it would be easy to freeze the humans to death (or at least grievously wounded, maybe a bit of frostbite). 

“It might be best to give up some secrets to gain some trust,” whispered Dayaram.  Abbey looked at him in confusion before she turned her attention back to the human couple that was still yelling about her evil and arguing at the top of their lungs with Seth.  Seth looked angry, but his words, while loud, were even and spoke with authority.

“It would make more sense.  I could believe that a yeti gave up her home over some silly notion of love because Karuna idiotically saved her, then a random yeti that right at the time yetis send their spawn to kill one of us that happens to be the same size as us so he’s not intimidating.  We’re obviously being manipulated, and we’re allowing it to happen,” Abbey felt her breath catch and then sent Dayaram a glance.  The leader of the guards shrugged. 

So Abbey walked forward, pushing past her guards and then stepping up onto the small stage.  The human woman immediately stopped yelling her eyes going wide as she backpedaled almost off the stage.  The man came to stand in front of the woman.  Trying to look brave and like a protector even thought it was clear he was scared stiff.  Abbey decided that was at least slightly honorable. 

With one glance to make sure no one was trying to get her off the stage, Abbey then un-tucked the layer of armor and carefully pulled it off her head, feeling the weight of the hide lined with deep reinforcement of almost rock solid ice.  She heard the man demand what she thought he was doing.  But as she carefully peeled off her cap, she felt like the entire village went quiet enough that she could hear a pin drop. 

Abbey looked out, she had been careful that the lower face mask still stayed.  She pulled a little, cinching her clothes, just in case the curve and structure of her face didn’t give away her gender, then the curves of her body would.  She might not be as curvaceous as some humans, but she did have curves, they were subtle but not something that could be ignored when she presented them. 

A quiet whisper started to emerge from the group and Abbey took that as a sign that she could leave.  She didn’t understand why she was there.  She couldn’t talk, and the way the humans were yelling, it probably wouldn’t have helped.  Dayaram was right, better to catch them off guard and basically use their words against them.  They said it made sense for Abbey to be a female, Abbey showed them she was female.  Though she certainly wasn’t love struck.  That would be weird. 

The armor felt heavy as Abbey slipped it back on as she made her way back through the crowd toward her little cabin.  She kept off her cap.  Her chained ice cap wasn’t going to stop any bullets, and any human that had been too far away to see her well enough to realize why all the humans had shut up.  Or maybe it seemed like they all shut up because the two loudest had finally stopped shouting.

Abbey didn’t really realize that she was still seething until the door slammed behind her.  The yeti stared at it, not really comprehending what she was seeing or feeling.  Then she turned and it didn’t take her long to realize her spear was gone.  Anger, cold and as encompassing as a blizzard froze her blood.  Thankfully the humans who had taken her stuff had just gone for the spear and Abbey still found her knife. 

The tempered edge of her hand made knife caught her eye for a moment and she just stared.  All she could see was the blood from last night.  She looked down on her gloves and the dark substance that stained the beautiful design that Indu had sewn for her.  She was hurt.  Her ribs hurt, and she wanted to check the scrapes on her body to see they weren’t infected.  She also wanted to hurt something.

Or go home.  Just go back into the arms of everyone she knew.  Back to Pyry and have the necklace mean a connection between the two instead of a reminder to Abbey of what she had lost.  She wanted to fight her old trainer, to have a mock fight with the yetis she was going to join the main army with.  She wanted the elders and her parents and she wanted that connection with her ancestors.

Abbey looked around, she wanted to build a fire and send her thoughts and prayers and questions up into the sky and at least pretend that she had ancestors.

“Abbey?” Abbey attacked Karuna.  It wasn’t really a thought out action.  Abbey stopped short of killing him and Karuna gasped harshly for breath as Abbey held him against the ground.

It would be nicer, kinder.  She could do for Karuna what her people should have done for her.  Karuna was damned anyway.  He couldn’t stay with his village, his own people were going to toss him out into the world with nothing but a bunch of useless information.  What was wrong with them?  What had Karuna or his parents done to him that they thought it was okay to throw him out?

She held the knife at his throat and stared in Karuna’s brown eyes.  This seemed familiar someway.  Abbey soon started to giggle, the leather pulled at her lips and she pushed her lips together as tightly as possible. 

“Are you alright Abbey?” asked Karuna and then he carefully shifted uncomfortably under Abbey.  Abbey pushed off the human.  She was no more able to kill Karuna now then she was the last summer.  Abbey hadn’t been able to kill the human when her life depended on it, how would she be able to kill him for his benefit? “Listen, I understand if you’re a bit annoyed about what those idiots said.”

Abbey grabbed her sketch pad and took the pen cap off with a flick of her finger. 

_You’re leaving.  They’re banishing you._

Karuna read what Abbey wrote and then started blushing and itched at his head uncomfortably. “Listen, I can explain.  I mean, we weren’t keeping it from you.”

_Yes you were._

Abbey wrote and added a glare.  She almost smiled when Karuna physically recoiled from her.  Apparently letting humans see her face had its upsides. 

“We’re…” Karuna trailed off as Abbey continued to glare. “When I’m gone Indu will still need someone to protect her… I’m working on it.”

Abbey quickly went to write before she stopped as Indu crashed through the door.  The yeti stared at the girl.  Indu seemed a little taken back, her eyes scanning the little cabin living space.  Then she met Abbey’s eyes and she puffed up and glared.  It might have been scary, except that Indu appeared to be wearing ten layers of clothes and looked more like a giant snowball than a human. 

“Put on your hood Abbey,” snapped the teen.

Abbey cocked her head in confusion and then quickly wrote on her pad. _Why?_

Indu rolled her eyes.

“Because I don’t want to accidently get frost bite while we heal you,” said Indu while rolling her eyes.  She then turned her glare on Karuna as Abbey obediently started to put on her cap. “Is that warm enough Karuna?  Kshama wants us to stay with her until she’s healed or dinner.”

“You don’t need that many layers in here,” said Karuna with a roll of his eyes.  Indu snorted and raised an eyebrow.

They ended up snuggled together in one of the corners where Indu had dragged some blankets.  Abbey found herself nodding off, her friends around her.  Indu had set an alarm on her watch, or something.  Abbey hadn’t realized how exhausted she was until she closed finally started to feel herself drifting away. 

Maybe things weren’t perfect.  But with her friends around her, no accusations coming from them that she was a girl and had tricked.  Abbey couldn’t help but feel she had a closer relationship with these humans then she had with anyone in her old tribe. 


	13. A Girl's Life

Abbey groaned and pushed whoever was trying to wake her up away and then snuggled harder into whoever who sharing their energy with her.  A choked squeak came from the small thing, and instantly Abbey realized that the thing she was holding was much too small to be a yeti, and that since he was probably holding him, she was probably squeezing him much too hard.  Abbey let him go and Lakshya crawled out of her arms and then retreated to her desk, glaring at her and coughing a little.  Abbey stared at him.  When Lakshya showed up?

“That was amazing!” shouted Karuna, running back into the tent.  Abbey looked around.  Where had Indu gone? “Come on Abbey.  It’s dinner.  You have the night off until Kshama gives you the all clear.”

Abbey titled her head to the side.  Then looked around for her sketch pad.

“I got it,” said Karuna, as if reading Abbey’s mind as he held up Abbeys pad.  Abbey reached out for him to give it to her and the silly human ran away.  Abbey watched him leave in confusion before bringing her fist in front of her face with pinky out and waved it three times in front of her face.  Karuna really was weird sometimes.

“I think he wanted you to chase him,” said Lakshya.  Abbey rolled her eyes.  Why hadn’t Karuna just said that?  Usually he did a little more to tease her before they started chasing each other.  Even when Karuna was being odd he at least gave her some time to get her bearings before he pulled something like that. “We should probably follow him before Kshama comes after us.”

Abbey nodded and grabbed her knife as she left.  Lakshya looked at it critically before ignoring it.  They walked in relative silence.  Abbey was actually happy with this.  She wasn’t sure what how Karuna would react to her holding a knife to his throat.  Then again, she probably didn’t have to worry.  Karuna tended to take physical attacks rather well.  At least Lakshya and Indu had become freaked out after she had shown how dangerous she was.  They had gotten over it in an oddly tidy fashion that Abbey, after spending so much time with humans, didn’t think was normal.  But at least they hadn’t spent the night with the thing that only a couple of days before had tried to kill them. 

Abbey followed Lakshya into the cabin.  The familiar heat rushed over her.  The yeti sighed.  She could still get overheated easily, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been.  Either the meditation lessons were working or she was just getting used to the heat.  Not that she still couldn’t get overheated, but at least it took longer and she wasn’t so uncomfortable.

“Over here Abbey,” said Kshama over the noise of Karuna’s constant chattered over Indu’s sniping while they started to put the dinner table together.  Seth was standing next to Kshama, and Abbey found out why when he helped her into a meditative frame of mind so she could find her core and then through bringing the coldness of her skin in.  Abbey then carefully took off her gloves and touched a fruit to check that her skin wouldn’t freeze Kshama when the old woman touched her. 

There was a hushed silence as she started freezing, and Abbey heard Kshama yell something about them being rude.  Abbey tried to ignore it.  She was mostly concerned that she was stripping off her cold layers and that it wouldn’t be long before she overheated.  But Seth had said the more she practiced bringing the cold into her core meant that there might be a time when she wouldn’t even notice when it was hot and could live almost as easily in a hotter climate.  Abbey followed Kshama directions, for the most part, and hummed when Seth made some comment on her necklace.

Karuna, Indu, and Lakshya they all looked so good, so right together as they put the table together.  They were all around the same age, Lakshya being the oldest by about two years.  Karuna was still chattering, but his constant chattered by Indu’s expressive interruptions.  Lakshya was quieter and half his comments got lost by the other two.  Humans were so different from yetis.  At home, instead of the noise of idle chatter and small daily chores, there would grunts and the smack and clang from training.  Once in a while the area would be peppered with a word or two, and it was a scary fascination when two yetis started to talk.  If the conservation went on for more than just a couple of words, usually the rest of the area would become quiet, the assumption being that what they were talking about was important.

Yetis didn’t need to constantly talk to one another like humans seemed to have to do.  Yetis instead got across most of what they wanted to say was instead communicated by understanding, by body language and an understanding of friends and family so well that talking would have been redundant. 

“Does that hurt?” asked Kshama.  Abbey blinked and saw that the old woman’s hand was dangerously close to her lips.  The yeti jerked away from the human, and possessively held the lower face mask in place.  The old woman wacked Abbey upside the head with her cane. “I need to look at if it hurts.  Whatever happened to your lower face should have healed enough not to hurt anymore or we might need to get the healers from Abominable’s tribe to come and look at it.”

Abbey shook her head again, holding a hand to her face.  She could still feel the stubborn leather thread holding her lips together. 

“You know what, now that we know you’re a girl, a lot of your eccentricities make sense,” said Karuna. “Don’t you think so Lakshya?”

“Lakshya already knew about Abbey,” said Indu.

“What?” said Karuna and then he actually paused for a moment before his eyes widened and he glared at Abbey. “Why did you tell him and not us?”

Abbey rolled her eyes and then looked around for something she could write on.  Seth handed her a notebook.

 _He guessed right_. She wrote.  Karuna huffed.

“Whatever,” said Karuna. “You know, the fact you’re a girl clears up a lot of things.  Like why you’re so anal over no one seeing under your mask because of the scarring and you enjoy primping with Indu.  Which is good because she’s been harping about getting at your hair all day.”

Abbey looked over at Indu and let her head tilt to the side.  Indu started coming over toward her, putting the last plate lazily onto the table as she did.  The teen looked Abbey up and down for a second, her hands in fists, before she lifted it gently and ran a hand through along Abbey’s hair line, her fingers just caressing the hair there.

“Put on some clothes.  If you feel up to it we’ll see if we can tease out some of the knots in your hair,” said Indu.

 _Why?_ Asked Abbey.

“Because humans value modesty and half the humans in here are male,” said Indu dryly, she then sent a glare at Abbey’s clothes.  The yeti rolled her eyes and looked at Kshama.  The old woman shrugged.

“You seem fine now, as far as I can,” said the woman, almost sounding distracted.  Abbey nodded and started shrugging on her clothes.  She heard Lakskya cough, but when she looked over at the boys, they were both very studiously looking in the opposite direction of the yeti.  Abbey rolled her eyes.

They then settled down to dinner.  Abbey took her usual small portion and weird looking straw that Seth had made her so she could at least get water into her body.  Seth stuck around for the meal.  He mostly talked about Abominable, whose tribe members were supposed to arrive the in a couple of days and speculating how Abbey’s revelation would affect how the town would respond to their presence.  He also asked Abbey questions about her necklace.  It was clear he had some idea around it, but whatever it was Abbey couldn’t figure out.  She answered as best she could.  She even stopped eating a couple of times to jot down what she remembered.  There was a little bit of confusion when Karuna thought she confused the genders.

“You mean ‘he’ gave you your necklace,” said Karuna for what seemed like the tenth time.  Abbey shook her head.  Karuna rolled his eyes. “You’re mate couldn’t be another girl.  That doesn’t make any sense.”

Seth started laughing and Lakshya almost choked on his food. Indu and Kshama were bent together reviewing their notes, but Abbey had the feeling that they were listening in.  Seth had been getting to leave, but now he came over and hit Karuna over the head with the flat of his hand.

“We need to get you some classes on Current Events or Social Studies,” said Seth with a shake of his head, giving Karuna his usual smile when he was trying to calm them down.  Karuna just glared at the other human. “Yetis have to be careful not to have unexpected pregnancies even among mated males and females.  The baby needs both the mother’s and father’s life force in order to survive.”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with Abbey insisting that her mate is female?” asked Karuna.  Seth rolled his eyes.

“While yetis have a mate they live with and support while they are trying and growing the babe.  The rest of the time, most of tribes agree that yetis need carnal gratification.  So most yetis form relationships or understanding with a yeti of the same gender and they indulge,” said Seth.  Abbey cocked her head at Seth. He really did know a lot about yetis for a human.  Karuna looked a little taken a back. 

“Why is this something you know?” asked Karuna.

“Kshama was interested in medical facts, and I was interested in social context,” said Seth then he looked over at Abbey, his eyes seeming to fall where her necklace was hidden. “Most simply sleep with who they want.  Abbey’s is the few tribes I’ve heard that make arrangements that seem as close and as marriage.”

 _They can change_ , wrote Abbey. 

“Were you close?” asked Karuna.  Abbey touched her necklace, and then shook her head.

 _It isn’t important_ , Abbey wrote.  Indu gave her a strange look.  The human girl came over, brandishing her hair brush. 

“But you were…”  Abbey threw a pillow at Karuna.  The boy caught it, and then he looked at Abbey in confusion.

“Abbey doesn’t even use her real name,” said Lakshya.  Everyone gave him a weird look and the young guard blushed. “I mean, her tribe attacks humans.  If she wasn’t banished before then…”

“Then why does she keep the necklace?” asked Indu.  Abbey wondered why the human didn’t talk to her.  But instead of irritating Indu, she waved at Seth as he made his way out of the house. 

“Because she wants one good thing to remember her old tribe by,” guessed Seth with a shrug. “That doesn’t mean she wants to talk about it.”

“What is your name Abbey?” asked Karuna.  Abbey gave him a look.

 _Abbey_ , she wrote. Indu laughed and tentatively touched Abbey’s skin.  The yeti sent the female human a reproving glare.  The human shouldn’t touch her if she wasn’t sure if Abbey had gotten her cold drawn into her body. 

“That’s not what I meant,” said Karuna, coming to sit next to her.  He was really looking at her, fascinating with tracing her face with his eyes. “What was the name your tribe gave you?”

 _Why does it matter?_ Wrote Abbey, the pencil snapped in her grasp.  Everyone stared at it, well, except Kshama who was working at her herbs again. Finally Lakshya took her pencil from her and replaced it with another one.  The one he gave her had been almost used to the eraser. 

“What the hell did you do to your hair?” asked Indu. Abbey winced as the human pulled at her hair with the comb.

“What is it with you two and hair?” asked Lakshya, pulling up a chair to sit next to them.

“They’re girls,” said Karuna with a roll of his eyes. “I mean, sure it was weird when we thought a boy yeti was combing Indu’s hair.  But this is normal.  Two girls having time together to gossip and do each other’s hair, nails, and makeup is normal.  Really, I don’t see why you had such a problem at first being called a girl.  You obviously enjoy it.”

 _Girl staryotypes are insulting to yetis_ , wrote Abbey. 

“What?” asked Lakshya.  The guard was sometimes hard to communicate with.  While Lakshya was pretty smart, he wasn’t an academic like Karuna and Indu.  So when Abbey started using more complex words or phrases, she tended to lose him. 

“That isn’t how you spell stereotypes,” said Karuna, taking the pad and pencil from her hands and correcting the spelling. “That doesn’t change the fact that you like doing girlish things.”

Abbey rolled her eyes and took back her pad and wrote, _I’m stronger than you_.

“Don’t rub it in,” said Karuna with a groan. Abbey glared and started writing again. 

 _You didn’t have a problem before you knew I was a female_ , Abbey wrote.  Karuna made to say something and she kicked his chair.  Unfortunately she kicked it a little too hard, and Karuna went crashing onto the ground.  _I’m a warrior_.

“You were a warrior in your old tribe here you’re…” as Karuna looked for words, Abbey lost her temper.  She snapped the second pencil in her grip and made to leave.  Indu caught her arm.  Abbey glared at her and the human lifted an eye and pointed to her hair.  Abbey reached up and found that the damp comb Indu had been using to get the tangles out of her hair. 

“You have really beautiful hair,” said Lakshya. “None of the yetis that ever come are as interesting as yours.  Theirs are usually white or gray.  Yours has blue, purple, and pink.”

 _I’m special_ , Abbey wrote, hoping the smirk showed through.  She knew the color of her hair was special, but the yetis in her tribe did tend to have streaks of some color in their white hair.  Abbey had just somehow gotten enough color from her line to make her hair spectacular.  It was one reason she had always been careful to cover her hair, while most of the dense concentration of color was on the hair next to her back, the top still had streaks of the vibrant color.  Not so good for concealment. 

“You know, for a yeti, and not seeing your scars, you’re really pretty,” said Karuna, titling his head as he stared at her. 

“That’s polite,” said Indu dryly.  Abbey started to turn, but Indu stopped her. “I was being sarcastic.”

“Well, I mean, I’m not going to lie.  And I don’t know what she’s hiding under her mask,” said Karuna, blushing now. “Plus, Abbey doesn’t care about looking pretty.  She just likes pretty things.”

“Maybe you should just think before you say something,” said Indu, she dipped the comb into some water and Abbey quickly double checked that she was holding the coldness in her body close inside herself. 

“Would makeup even work on a yeti?” asked Lakshya. 

“What the hell sort of question is that?” asked Karuna, making Lakshya jump.  The guard shrugged.

“Well, I mean, her skin is colder, it might not settle on her right, and she’s blue.  Are there the right colors to compliment and bring out her color?” asked Lakshya.  There was a beat of silence, and then Indu snorted and Karuna actually started laughing.

“That is the girliest question I’ve ever heard a guy ask,” said Karuna.  Abbey narrowed her eyes and kicked his chair again.  Karuna squeaked as he was propelled backward and ended up on his back. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop using gender stereotypes.”

Abbey nodded and then winced when her hair was given a vicious yank. It turned out to be quite the project trying to get her hair tame again.  Indu ended up putting some sort of cover over her hair and instructing Abbey to sleep on her stomach.  Abbey left hardly feeling anything after spending so much time in the heated house.  It seemed like bringing the cold of her body into her body.  She still rolled around in the snow, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. 

The next day Abbey was back in rotation.  She woke up later, feeling refreshed, her wounds almost completely healed.  When she went to see Seth, it turned out that he wanted her to not only draw her cold inward, but to also use her necklace as a focal point.  A small flurry of snow had surrounded her, and as Abbey held out her hands to catch the flakes, Seth told her that it wouldn’t be long until she wouldn’t need his guidance, though he hoped they continued their meetings.  He seemed to still believe there would be a time when Abbey wouldn’t really need to think about dragging the cold in her body inward, that it would become second nature.  Abbey still wasn’t completely sure about that, but she started to buy into the idea a little.  After all, she had kept the cold inside her when Indu had been brushing her hair. 

Abbey’s new look was the talk of the village.  Apparently the humans who disliked a yetis presence had come up with a reason why Abbey being female was now even worse than when she was when she was male.  Thankfully most of the village had accepted the idea that Abbey had followed and become part of their community because she was in love with Karuna.  It was an annoying idea, but she didn’t correct them.  None of the guards treated her any different, though they too did the staring thing.  Lakshya reiterated the fact that she was pretty in an unconventional way, and that most of the guards, when they found out she was human by guard gossip or because they had felt something when training with her.  Apparently, according to Lakshya and a few of the other guards, they had thought her big eyes meant the rest of her face was misshapen and weird looking. 

The whole weirdness over humans finding her attractive wasn’t helped by Indu casting off any restraints she had over treating Abbey like a fellow female.  This was both amusing and annoying.  Abbey ended up hiding away for an entire day after Indu had tried to give her a rant on why it was important for Abbey to look her best and started to say degrading things about males.  Karuna had tracked Abbey down later.  He told her that Indu had calmed down and wouldn’t try that again, he then proceeded to give Abbey a similar lecture on looking good, but instead on focusing on why it was important for females to obsess about it, he pointed out why Abbey would want to and then left it up to her.

It wasn’t long until Abbey had ditched her old clothes, the final straw coming when Karuna wouldn’t stop asking questions about her tribe.

“Yeah, fine, the necklace would make sense, a little tie back to your lover and what not,” said Karuna as they sat around the fire.  Abbey was practicing braiding on Indu and the boys were playing some sort of board game. “But the clothes are old, raggedy, and need replacing.  I mean, the only reason that you would keep them is because you’re still holding tight onto tradition.”

Abbey let go of Indu’s hair with a roll of her eyes and went to her pad, not to write, but to draw.  She’d been trying to draw her friends in ‘fantastical settings’.  Lakshya had requested some pictures.  Abbey didn’t know if it was because he was genuinely interested in her work, or because he was disturbed when he saw her drawing them as she would imagine they’d look if they were yetis. 

“Karuna has a point Abbey,” said Indu, as she checked Abbey’s work.  Abbey rolled her eyes.  Her hair was half up, half down; apparently this was a ‘crowd favorite’.  While they liked putting her hair into styles, apparently they also wanted her colorful under hair to be shown off. 

“You’re only saying that because you want to dress her up,” said Lakshya.

“I’m saying that because she only has that to wear and it’s starting to get thread bare,” snapped Indu with a great flourish toward Abbey. The yeti looked over her armor.  It might not have been in the best shape, but it was still serviceable.  Well, almost. “I mean, it won’t take even those morons who think Abbey is some sort of spy to realize that what she wears isn’t fit for protecting her.”

“Why not wear the guard uniform?” asked Indu.  She was still making a face, but she had relaxed back in her chair and was staring directly at Abbey. “At least that way you will have a change of clothes.  The guard uniform is masculine enough.  And you will change clothes and let us put your clothes with Karuna’s to wash.  You wear those same clothes on weeks on end before you sneak away to wash them.  That is gross, not even guys wait that long before washing.”

“Mostly because girls start complaining,” muttered Karuna.  Indu sent him a glare. “Fine, I give.  I give.  What about it Abbey?”

Abbey thought about it, picking at her clothes.  These had been made by her… They had been made by the yetis that wanted to kill her human and all of his people.  She was now part of the human village.  So a change of clothes, that was fine.  It wasn’t like she was getting rid of her necklace, not that she should keep the necklace either if it was sentimental to her because of an old friend.  No, now she needed it because it was her concentration point.  She officially could do the thing where she could make it snow around her.  She still had to think about it, but with the moon ice around her neck, she could tunnel the cold in her body into it and in that way it was not only easier, but also more effective. 

Indu took her measurements, and a couple of days later Abbey found five uniforms in her assigned locker in the guard barracks.  She ended up enforcing the uniform with only a thin layer of ice. It wasn’t horrible as armor.  The layer of ice had been treated the same as she had always done.  It was much denser and harder than normal ice.  It wouldn’t stop a bullet, but it did give her extra protection. 

She got a few “wolf” whistles out of it.  Which she still didn’t quite understand the meaning of them.  For one thing, when she asked if they actually wanted to date her or sleep with her, like Lakshya said the whistles meant, the humans usually stared at her like she was crazy.  Lakshya had led her away, and when Abbey recounted to Karuna what happened he broke down into loud laughing and then rolled over on her side, finally telling Abbey that the humans had just been looking for a reaction, and Abbey approaching them had shocked them.  Abbey still didn’t understand.  She did have a reaction, and it was a normal reaction.

Then she had thought about it and had instead started declining their offers.  Which made them laugh and Lakshya had told her to stop because the jokes were starting to become unbearable.  Abbey didn’t know what the problem was, she didn’t hear anything off from the guards.  Lakshya had then set her in front of Karuna and told him to teach her sarcasm. 

Sometimes she felt like they underestimated her.

And then the rumors started and Abbey was asked to stop guarding for a little while.  She then ended up in front of her boss, answering questions.  It hadn’t taken her long to figure out what was going on.  The sightings and attacks by yetis near the wall had been worse than they had been in years.  With the time of year it was, right before the warm air started to melt and make the lower parts of the mountain unbearable to journey to.  Now was the time they started to pick the last big fight for the winter season. 

It seemed that this year, her past tribe's attack would be bold.  They were going to attack the humans, and from their movements, Abbey was sure they meant to attack the Wall City.  The one that trained people almost specifically to fight and defend against yetis, and the more dangerous creatures that lurked near the top of the mountain.

Now the village had taken her job, and there was talk of those that could, taking up arms to defend their people.  These weak, fragile, things were planning on attacking her people.  Yetis weren’t to be trifled with.  Maybe there were more humans with guns.  But Abbey could feel one last winter storm brewing in her blood.  That was when they would attack, and they would be unstoppable.  Yetis controlled the cold; they could attack from afar and freeze these humans in place. 

So, no matter what, as horrible as it was to fight against the people she had been trained and grew up with, in order to save the humans she was now family with, she would have to be with the humans, on their side, when her people attacked.

 


	14. Blue Blood

_What do you mean?_ Demanded Abbey, her letters harsh on her sketch pad, ruining the picture on the other side. 

“You can’t come with me,” said Karuna with exasperation.  Lakshya had made his excuses to leave as soon as the argument had begun.  Kshama and Indu were milling around the area.  They seemed completely uninterested in the conversation. “It’s not a girl thing Abbey.  They don’t even let the Abominable tribe help when the yetis do things like this.”

Abbey rolled her eyes and went back to writing.  The humans had never faced a true war party before.  They had been attacked by raids, but the humans on this side of the mountain had not been attacked in over three decades by a true war party, and all signs showed that the next attack meant to be just that.  It was meant to muster as much power and speed needed to take out the humans well past the wall they had built.  Abbey knew, she had been the one her boss had been coming to for information from her.  She knew their movements.  She had been integral in laying a picture. 

And yet, now she found out that she was going to be left out of the rest of the attack.  That didn’t make sense.  She’ wasn’t just the most effective weapon they had, at least for getting rid of the snow or responding with snow and ice attacks.  She would also be the best advisor.  No other yeti was as good as her, not that the humans were allowing Abominable’s tribe to help them.  Abbey didn’t see how that worked.  Abominable’s tribe had every right to defend their land against the yetis from invaders. 

 _Protector_ , wrote Abbey.  Karuna actually glared at her.  He had been getting irritated, especially since when he had tried to run away from the conversation early on until Kshama had reprimanded him.  Telling him that he had to explain it to Abbey so she wouldn’t follow him.  Abbey didn’t see how anything Karuna would say would stop her from following him.  He was going to fight yetis after all.  Karuna, the boy who had not only been easily overcome by Abbey and then had followed her toward the top of the mountain.  Sure, he wasn’t a bad shot, but he only practiced sporadically at the range, and he had never shot a living thing.  Abbey was hesitant about them sending Lakshya, and he was technically a guard. 

“You can’t kill,” said Karuna.  Abbey actually froze at that, because that had to be the stupidest thing she’d ever heard.  Maybe this was one of the gendered things that she had been afraid of.  Karuna tried to rip her pad from her when she started writing again.  Abbey lost control for a second, but thankfully she hadn’t ever given anyone a black hand or finger again, now she just coated their hand or part of their body in ice.  It wasn’t good, but Abbey could quickly remove the ice from their bodies. They would be cold, but they wouldn’t need Abbey to heal them. 

“You couldn’t kill me,” Karuna gritted through his teeth after Abbey removed the ice from his fingertips.  Abbey looked up at him. “You were trained to kill humans.  That’s what you’re people do.”

Abbey shook her head.  Abbey reached for her sketch pad.  She could kill, and yetis in her tribe weren’t trained to only attack and kill humans.  In fact, most of her training focused on survival.  Yes, that included some practical lessons on what to do when attacking humans, but mostly what she had learned was to hunt for food and work within a group to take down more difficult specimens. 

“I know you can kill animals, but even before you knew me, you couldn’t kill me,” said Karuna, his voice getting softer. Abbey shook her head and slipped the pencil in her hand before she started writing.

 _I’ve killed mountain giants before,_ wrote Abbey.

“They’re not intelligent,” said Karuna in exasperation.  He tried to rip away the sketch pad again. “Not like us.  It doesn’t matter. You couldn’t kill me, how do you expect us to believe you can protect me when you couldn’t even kill something you were trained to kill.”

Abbey shook her head.  That was ridiculous.  _Different_.

“You’re right,” said Karuna, eyes staying fixed on Abbey’s writing. “This isn’t just about killing a stranger; this is about killing the people you grew up with.  You know them.  You might claim that your past didn’t happen, but it did.  They mean something to you.  You couldn’t kill me.”

Karuna appeared to be repeating himself now. 

 _This is different,_ she wrote again. 

“Yes, you’re connected to them.  You love them,” said Karuna.  Abbey shook her head.  She didn’t love any of them.  They didn’t mean anything to her anymore.  They couldn’t.  They had taken her right to feel anything for them.  Maybe it wasn’t right that she kill them, but they had thrown her out and she was indebted to him.  Even if it was against them.  She would protect the Karuna.  It was the only thing that should be important in her life. “No matter what you say, we can see it.  The way you cling to the things that remind you of your people.  The way you look when we talk about yetis or you stop yourself from writing about your past.  It is clear that you still think fondly of them.  It’s not wrong.  It makes you… it makes us trust you more since you seem more human.  But it also means we can’t trust you in battle.”

Abbey shook her head and reached to hold Karuna’s hand in her own.  Was this a girl thing?  Did they think that she couldn’t kill because she was female?  Because the whole gender thing was really ridiculous.  Abbey had read plenty of stories from Karuna’s library where the female was the villain and killed plenty of other humans.  Usually it was underhanded, but they still killed. 

“It’s not because you’re a girl, Abbey,” said Karuna with a sigh, as if reading her mind. “And I trust you.  We don’t think you’re going to turn on us or anything, but I don’t think you can really fight someone of your own tribe.  I think you’ll freeze up, like you did for me.  You’ll be a liability if you do that on the battlefield and then you’ll be dead.  You can’t protect me then Abbey.”

Abbey continued to shake her head.  If she was in battle, then it would be different.  With Karuna, it hadn’t been a true fight.  Abbey had simply overpowered him. Nothing hard to do.  It hadn’t been what she’d been told.  Karuna hadn’t been a great fighter.  He had crumbled under her, despite his weaponry which could have easily killed her.  He had been helpless against her.  In battle, Abbey wouldn’t see this.  She wouldn’t have time to stand over the body because she would be too focused on defending not only Karuna but herself. 

“They’ll kill you Abbey.” That Abbey agreed with.  If she did go to battle, she would probably use a lot of her energy try to lessen the snowstorm that the yetis would fuel with their own magic and just trying to even the playing field so the humans wouldn’t be completely massacred.  Humans greatly outnumber her people, but the yetis would be attacking at night with the snowstorm.  Humans could hardly see at night, they had absolutely no ability to connect to the storm or the snow around them to help guide them in destroying their enemies. 

But all that didn’t mean anything; she was still obligated to save them. 

“Not your people,” said Karuna.  She tilted her head to the side in confusion.  Of course her people would try to kill her.  Just because they hadn’t done it before didn’t mean they would roll over and let her kill them.  Even if she was part of the tribe, if she attacked them and joined the humans then she would have automatically been considered disowned. “The humans will kill you if you even get close. You won’t be able to protect me then.”

Indu came over and put her hand on Karuna’s shoulder.  Abbey looked over and then realized that Indu had a bag slung over her shoulder.  It couldn’t be…

“They need healers,” said Indu, looking from Abbey’s eyes to the floor. “They asked us to come help in the tents.”

 _I can help_ , Abbey wrote again.  She as a bit of a healer.  She wasn’t very good at it, but she could do things naturally that humans had to wait around weeks to get healed from.  Abbey felt something knock her over the head with Kshama’s cane.  She turned on the old woman.

“I know you’re from a violent girly and that we could really use you in the fight, but there is no point in coming to protect Karuna or us when all that’s going to happen is that you’re going to put him in danger by our idiotic males shooting at you if you show any of your blue skin around their battleground,” said Kshama. Abbey just stared at him and the old woman sighed. “You can’t help if you’re dead girl.  Stay here.  We’ll be safe.  I’ll be looking after Karuna and promise to bring him back to you.”

Abbey sighed and shook her head.  Kshama ran her hand down the side of Abbey’s face.  Her people would kill them, but how could she protect them if they killed her as soon as they saw her. 

A tear escaped and Abbey pushed at her eyes, trying to stop more tears from falling even as the water trail froze on her cheeks. 

“Oh Abbey, we’ll be okay.  Seth has agreed to come here to help you keep an eye on our place.  You might be surprised what sort of addicts try to steal our supplies.  Forget what we do for this village,” said Indu with an awkward laugh.  Abbey glared and then looked away from them. “He’ll be here soon.”

Abbey continued to look away.  Trying to wrap her mind around the fact that the one thing, keeping Karuna safe was all she had now, what her life meant.  Now she was told that when Karuna was sent off to do the most dangerous thing possible, to participate in protecting his people against hers, that she couldn’t help him.  What good was she?  What was her point?  She was a fighter that the humans shelved, giving her a position as a guard, but not allowing her to actually fight.  Karuna had even tried to forbid her to kill animals, even wild ones that were a threat to the village.  What good was she?  What good was a fighter in a society that refused her what she was good for.  She was a yeti.  Yetis were born tough with bloodlust singing in their veins.  Yetis needed this in order to survive the harsh climate of the mountains and survive the various creatures that roamed across the snow and competed with them for space and resources. 

Abbey looked up as she realized that they were leaving.  She quickly stood and then threw her arms around Karuna.  They were leaving.  As much as she hated it, she couldn’t let them leave while they were still acting like this.  She gave them all hugs, and then looked to the side as they all said their final goodbyes and left.  Abbey gulped back tears, holding her arms as if giving herself a hug and then chuckling.  She really had spent too much time around Indu.

For a couple of minutes she thought about going outside and digging herself into the snow.  It would certainly take the edge off, but they yeti didn’t know if it would be what she really needed.  This space is what she needed.  Abbey didn’t need to divorce herself from the humans, she needed to be reminded and comforted by their presence.  So she stayed in Kshama’s house.  Abbey tried for a little while to meditate, but in the end she took out her sketchpad and started to draw.

Seth did eventually come in.  Abbey looked up long enough from her picture to give him a wave before she went back to working on her picture.  She liked working with pencils.  Indu had given her paints before, but they took too long to dry and Abbey tended to freeze the paints.  So pencils were best. 

“I’m surprised you’re here,” said Seth, placing his hand on Abbey’s shoulder.  Abbey glared up on him, her fists clenching and trying to tell herself that she shouldn’t throw the stupid human just to prove a point. “I would have thought you’d be stalking him by now.”

Abbey flipped to the next page in her sketch book.  She liked how her portrait was turning out even though she wasn’t sure what it meant. _Dangerous,_ Abbey wrote and then quickly showed him the page.

“I wouldn’t have thought that would stop you.  When you first stalked Karuna even though the guards were told to shoot and ask questions later if they saw you,” said Seth, he sat down on the edge of the couch close to Abbey.  Abbey glared at him, her pencil tapping on the pad. She could see why Indu once thought that Seth sometimes did and said things in order to cause problems in the community. 

 _You are trying to manpulate me_ , Abbey wrote.  Seth reached out, took her pencil and put an ‘i’ in-between the ‘n’ and ‘p’ in manipulate. 

“Maybe, that doesn’t change the facts,” said Seth.  Abbey leaned forward and looked him in the eyes, letting her pencil fall to the pad. She could try to explain her points, but really, she had spent so much time around humans, debating and listening to them talk and get so caught up in their points of view, that sometimes they forgot to open up and really allow what the other person said to sink in.  They used so many words and were so caught up in their own heads, that they forgot they were a part of something bigger.

“You are making excuses,” said Seth.  Abbey looked up and glared at him. “Is sitting here the right thing for you to do?  So the humans don’t want you there, so what?  Has the fact that humans don’t want you in the village stopped you from forcing your way in?  I’m not saying to blindly walk into walk into their camp and get shot but find away to become join the battle so that it is clear what is going on.”

 _How?  Month to get into village_ , wrote Abbey.  Seth chuckled and nodded.

“You know humans better now,” said Seth with a shrug. “I’m sure you can do it easier now.  I suggest making it clear that you’re invaluable.”

 _How_? Asked Abbey.  Seth shrugged again.

“I’m a scholar and a spiritualist, but I’m afraid I know little of war.  You’re going to have to figure it out on your own, though I would suspect that you should wear something covering your blue skin until it’s clear who you’re fighting for.”  Abbey stared at Seth.  In her old village something like this only happened every blue moon because yetis generally got behind one another.  They didn’t always agree or get along, but they were all one people, always, not just when some threat reared its ugly head.  Humans had so many different cliques and ways of ostracizing each other. 

There was one question left, what was Abbey going to do?  And in the end, maybe what would be the most true to herself.  Abbey had spent so much time trying to fit in, trying to do the right thing.  Humans, they were true to themselves before they folded under the rules and obligations of their civilization, and somehow that worked.  Abbey was a part of their culture, and she respected their individuality.  As much as that part of them drove her crazy, maybe they had a point.

It didn’t take long for Abbey to put together some armor and get her spear.  Seth followed her and gave a final wave as the yeti headed out toward the battlements.  Abbey spent some time enforcing the armor with ice and covering it with a layer of snow.  She spent a little time working with the snow around her, gathering it in front of her, or sending it in small waves out from around her feat, at one point she almost bounced the snow around her in order to create a small cloud of snow. 

This was right.  If she believed nothing else, then she could believe that.  Even when Abbey took away her obligation to him, she still needed to protect him.  He was her friend.  The only reason he was going to this stupid war was because the humans were—odd.  They made a civilization near the tops of the mountain but only really trained a small part of their people in war, yet when war came they called on all the men to fight. Abbey had decided she wasn’t even going to ask about why all the woman except the healers were supposed to stay in their village and wait to either hear about the men’s victory or wait around until the yetis found them and killed them all. 

Twilight began to fall, and Abbey reached out her hand and caught the very first few snowflakes that started to fall.  The yeti felt her breath catch in her throat for a second, but tried to push away her unease.  Her old tribe would not be attacking yet.  They would be waiting until true night had fallen and the storm had really started to build. Still, she picked up her feet and started to race faster.  She was now constantly worried that she would be late, that she would miss out and by the time she found the battlefield, all she would find were human bodies. 

In the end, explosions, ones that Abbey was sure were the same as the cannons the humans used at midday, led her to the battle.  Abbey felt fear flush through her like cascading ice even as she pulled the storm in the forefront of her mind.  With one great push, accompanied by her removing her spear from her back, Abbey grabbed the storm and pushed.  It was the best that she could do.  It wouldn’t stop the storm, but it would take away some of the power.  As Abbey through herself in, she could feel the fight of a hundred or so other yetis fighting to do the opposite of her. If Abbey hadn’t been intent on slowly driving the storm back, digging her connection in tight enough to help disperse the storm, she might have marveled how powerful compared to her comrades, she was. 

No, not comrades, she was battling against the yetis at the top of the mountain.  They were her enemy, her loyalty now sided with the humans, at best with Abominable’s tribe. Lights kept appearing, mixing with the slowly lessening sheet of snow that was falling heavily onto the ground.  Still, Abbey could feel the storm disintegrating under her power. 

A yeti found her.  They might not be able to manipulate the cold and snow as well as she could, but the best of them could follow the disturbance back to her.  Abbey mentally ripped at the clouds even as she dodged the screaming yetis club.  She ran forward and stab with her spear.  The yeti screamed and as Abbey looked up, she realized she had no idea who she had stuck.  She couldn’t have forgotten this quickly.  Within seconds, and without any real thought, Abbey had killed him.  She wanted a second to breathe.  A second to process the fact that she had killed a member of her own tribe before she killed the enemy.

Another cry from a blood thirsty yeti caught her attention, and Abbey quickly renewed her grasp on the storm and ran toward the screaming, the explosions, and the gunfire.  In the vibration and battle cries of the yetis, she knew the humans were losing, but that didn’t stop her. Abbey formed an ice pick and through it at the next yeti attacking her, he almost reacted to slowly to dissipate it he was so surprised and she used that time to drive her spear through his throat and use his falling body as a means to attack at a higher level on the next yeti, which had become embroiled in fighting some human enemies.  Abbey saw a brief picture of what might have been a covered head flying from one of the human’s shoulders and red splattering the snow. 

There was a millisecond where her attention wavered, confusion throwing her off guard as her attention focused on the red blood.  The things she hunted and killed to keep her people safe, to keep them going, they always bled red blood, not blue. 

Abbey cried out in pain as a rough blade caught her leg.  She struck out and the yeti under her cried out in pain.  Abbey fought through her own blinding pain, loosening her hold on the storm as she both sent some power toward her legs to help her heal, and also toward driving her spear into the yetis brain.  Certain organs in a yeti, when applied with enough force were sure to kill them.  Of course, ripping a yeti apart was the only sure way, but grabbing and almost ripping the heart apart might go it, scrambling the brain or severing the head were also effective. 

The yeti fell and Abbey road him to the ground, finishing a superficial healing across her leg that in the long run she would have to rip off.  There was such a thing as healing bad healing.  Taking time and concentration was important to the healing process. 

The humans stared at her dumbly, but Abbey didn’t have time to deal with them as she reached out with her connection to grab hold of the storm again.  Another scream and Abbey felt a yeti charging in their direction.  Abbey reaches down and easily turns the snow she finds there into a spear of ice.  The storm picks up, and Abbey almost misses the ice actually hitting its target and the blue blood that sprays out and the body creating vibrations across the snow under her feet.

“You Sand’s yeti?” It takes all of Abbey’s control to stop her from continuing the movement to gut the human that has latched himself to her arm. “Come on, we’ll get you safe.”

Abbey glared for a second but followed.  For a couple of seconds she wondered if she should lose them in the general bustle.  The battle was in full force and everything was confusing, the air filled with shouts and bangs.  To humans the battlefield must be impossible to navigate.  They could hardly see in the dark.  Abbey hadn’t been able to disperse the snowstorm enough to make much of a difference, and the humans kept throwing what appeared to be hot balls of light in the air, that only really seemed to emphasize how much snow was falling.

Even Abbey was having trouble.  She could use the snow, ice, and even cold around her to tell where everyone was, but there was so much going on that it pretty much overwhelmed her.

Within seconds they were on another skirmishing group and, for what felt like sometime between a second and eternity, all she could feel was the pounding of power through her blood.  Blue and red blood painted the ground, bodies freezing on the ground.  Humans being battered and ripped apart by crude yeti weapon and might.  Yetis fell harder, some by humans hitting the right place by what seemed accident more than design or under Abbey’s own prowess. 

“We’re near him,” shouted one of her companions.  Abbey glanced over, she was a little beaten up, and she even could feel some open wounds from bullets that had grazed her because humans apparently couldn’t aim. 

Abbey could feel from where the human had pointed, something was coming.  She removed the spear from her back, fear gripping her tightly as she realized something was wrong.  The humans shouted over her, and something slammed into her shoulder right before she jumped over the small setup the human had made for himself and a few others.  Snow was falling thickly and heavily, it was clear the yetis had also figured out this man was important in some way, and had directed an assassin his way to help confuse and weaken the humans.  Perhaps if Abbey had not arrived, the yetis would have won in one day, had taken away the human threat and left only the yeti one.

Her spear left her hands, a sure throw to pierce through the brain, as long as she had read the signs right through the snow.  She ran forward, ready to wrench her spear free so she might completely destroy whatever was left.  She had to keep the humans safe.  She had to save Karuna.  As the yeti came into sight, he hadn’t been far when she had dug deep into his brains, but now she could see him.

Every yeti had one last swing, one last chance at glory before death took them.  Stories told in precious breath were whispered about the great warrior that in one last swing of their weapon had killed the rest.  And yet, with a dying yeti in front of her, Abbey was compelled into complete stillness.  Her father.  Maybe he hadn’t been there like humans were, but out of all the yetis she’d fought and watched their blue blood spill back to the snow and ice, it was her father’s face she recognized. 

The swing of his ax almost killed her, the sting as it bit into her skin across her face, caching hard on her cheek and making blood well in her mouth.  Abbey ducked down and then retreated because she saw bullets caused blue holes to seem to appear on his face.  The body of her father fell and Abbey walked slowly forward and extracted her spear.  A wave of remorse filled her, but she breathed deeply and simply looked away.

“Girl,” a small hand grabbed her chin and Abbey once again found herself gripping her spear in a tight grip and going rigged to try and stop herself from killing him on reflex.  He looked and held himself differently than the rest. “Are they telling the truth, are you the one that’s been slowing the storm?”

Abbey nodded, and then winced.  The man scanned her, and then sighed.

“Get her to the tents,” he said, looking back at his men.  Abbey ripped her hand out and for a second she was actually going to protest.  Except, just in the corner of her eyes, she was reminded her who she had just killed and made sadness well in her chest and overfill to her throat. “We need you safe, yeti.  It’s nothing to do with your gender or race.  We’ve just backed ourselves into a corner and made it impossible to let you die.”

Abbey looked him in the eyes.  He seemed sincere, but who was Abbey to judge.  Finally she nodded.  Maybe if she did this, they would let her see Karuna, or maybe even offer her a favor and let Karuna out of his civic duty.  Karuna wouldn’t need to help if they just also used their own warriors with the Abominable tribe. 

They led her away, and sat her down.  Abbey drove off the medical person they sent their way, somehow getting across that they’re attention was unneeded and would cause distraction.  Time went by in bursts, at first Abbey concentrated on trying to grab at the weather, blindly reaching and fighting what felt like twenty other yetis.  Finally she, almost instinctively, fell back to meditation.  When she finally opened her eyes, it was to the dawn light, stiff limbs, and the knowledge that she hadn’t truly dispersed the storm.  Her head was a mess, and as long as her old tribe had some resources, then they would be able to knit back the storm by the end of the night.

“Well, if it isn’t Sand’s pet yeti,” said a human voice.  Abbey looked up, her head cradled in her hands.  Before her stood five men, all kitted out in fancy looking guard uniforms and in various states of disarray. “I thought we told you to stay away.”


	15. The Past Catching Up

It had taken everything in her power for Abbey not to coldcock the idiotic man with the gravelly voice who wouldn’t let her look for Karuna, was too stupid not to understand things the first time she told him, and couldn’t seem to open his mouth without saying something insulting about yetis.  Maybe Abbey would have been able to put up with the last one if he had been from one of the nearby villages, especially if he had been one of the soldiers from the other side of the mountain where Abbey’s people had mostly concentrated their attacks, but no, he was “big government” and had no idea what a yeti could do.  In fact, Abbey was sure he hadn’t seen a yeti since the battle since he’d asked several times why her people hadn’t breathed fire this time.

It didn’t help that he was the only one to read, and that he was bad at it.  Abbey had to stop herself several times from calling him an idiot.  Really, Abbey decided she wasn’t much of a diplomat, the only reason she had played nice and answered almost all their questions was because she wanted them to find Karuna.  They said they sent someone to go get him, but either they were spectacularly incompetent or they hadn’t actually told anyone to find Karuna until they were sure she told them everything.

Now she was being led to the healing tent.  Two reasons, Abbey might have lost her temper and written that the moron from the state was an idiot.  Thankfully the other ones hadn’t blamed, and actually berated him.  Telling him that it was insensitive to call someone stupid just because they were mute.  Abbey might have tried to also point out that since learning to write and read was apparently harder than learning how to speak, that she was smarter than him, but she had been having trouble figuring out easy enough words for him to read or figure out so she could tell them what she wanted.  The second reason that she was being shown to the healers’ tent was because a little earlier she had started to cut into her own face and then tried to do the same with her leg.  She had tried to tell them that the wounds hadn’t truly been healed, and they seemed to get that, but they had still asked her to stop and see a healer, even a human healer, before she tried to finish with her face and go to her leg.

Abbey had half been hoping for this reaction anyway and had just let herself bleed from the cut on her cheek the rest of the time.  The cut was clean and relatively shallow.  She wouldn’t bleed out, and she had slowly worked a little healing toward her body.  She didn’t think it was working, all she seemed to be accomplishing was making her headache. 

The yeti smiled at the man as he left her to find… some human.  She thought she heard that they had sent messengers to get the yetis, but he sounded happy about it.  Abbey didn’t understand.  She was pretty sure he’d introduced himself as one of the experts they’d convinced to help from the other side of the mountain, and all the humans from there had every reason to hate her and her kind.  Abbey’s tribe had attacked them almost every year.  They had refrained from attacking Karuna’s side for the most part because of the yetis they also had to deal with. 

This human before her, he had no reason to trust any yetis.  Not only had his people been constantly attacked by her people, but he hadn’t even had the experience of a working treaty with a tribe like Abominable’s.  As he left, almost looking like he had a happy bounce to his step.  Abbey watched him go, maybe he was just happy that humans wouldn’t be fighting the yetis anymore and thought it was funny yetis were going to attack each other.  He didn’t make much sense. 

The healing tent was obnoxious.  Humans, apparently, were even louder and wasted more air when they were hurt.  Some screamed, others cried, and Abbey wondered if any of them were showing the stoicism that all humans seemed to claim that only men had.  Not that the tent was a pleasant place to be, it wreaked to high heaven, and the general feel just made Abbey’s wound ache and her head feel like it was going to explode.

“Abbey!” shouted Indu.  Abbey gripped harder at her head.  Why did humans have to be so loud? “My God, you’re covered in…”

Abbey peaked out from her arms.  Apparently her friend was having trouble linking the fact that Abbey was dotted with blue, as she was covered in her own blood.  That or she was really shocked by what was in front of her. 

 _It’s okay.  Just need to break skin to heal wounds properly_ , Abbey wrote.  She showed it to Indu, who made a face and paled a little.

“Alright,” said the human, sounding a little shaky, “but first I want to give you a quick look over.  Maybe just wipe away the blood.  Is it okay if we do it here?”

Abbey nodded.  Actually, she wouldn’t mind if Indu did look her over.  Her face really did feel odd.  It wasn’t that it hurt, but sometimes the worst wounds, the ones that snuck up and killed yetis, were ones that felt weird instead of being painful. Indu got some steaming water.  Abbey sighed a little away from the hot cloth as Indu brought it toward her.  She understood why it had to be that hot, otherwise it would just freeze to her skin. 

Still, she let Indu continue, even as heat lanced up through her very soul.  It hurt like hell, but in the end, she wasn’t sure that was a bad thing.  And then the human gasped and Abbey remembered something important through her killing headache, reinforced when Indu again rubbed the cloth over her mouth, harder this time as if she could wipe away the leather thread.  Abbey pushed at her and Indu looked up at her in confusion.

“I’m here.  Hey, Abbey let you… what the hell is wrong with your mouth?” asked Karuna and then winced as Kshama wacked him over the head with her cane.  He was limping a little, he was on crutches with Kshama walking next to him.  Abbey wondered what had happened.  Had another yeti broken his leg?  Had a stupid human shot his leg like they had grazed him?  Or had he somehow shot himself?  Abbey wouldn’t put it past him. “Right, your deformity.”

“It’s not a deformity,” said Indu sharply.  The human went to pull on the leather thread and Abbey caught her arm.  Indu glared at her, looking ready to kill if she had to. 

“What is it?” asked Karuna.  Abbey let her own fingers trail over the leather.  She let her hand travel across the stitches and brush against her lips.  The leather that bound her lips together was still there, but it felt as if it worked differently through her lips.  And then she found it.  One of the loops had been severed.  Without meaning to, her father’s blade had cut through the first loop of the thread.  The leather kept her mouth sewn shut, but the blade had done something that time and her fangs had never been able to. 

“You never grunted or hummed, or made any sound.  We thought you were actually mute,” Indu spat.  Abbey looked up at the human.  What did she expect her to say?

“Her mouth is sewn shut,” said Kshama. Abbey glanced to the side.  At some point Kshama had come over to her.

“What?” demanded Karuna.  He ran over to Abbey and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. “No.  Why didn’t you tell us?  How?”

Abbey titled her head to the side and winced as her lips parted and the thread tried to go through her lips. 

“Well, start getting it out Indu.  The sooner the threads out the quicker we can get her and Karuna to Lakshya for her to get healed up.  Lord knows the boys ended up being disappointments,” said Kshama.  Karuna flushed.  Abbey stared at the old woman and then flinched away as she reached toward her touch. 

She reached for her sketch book.

 _This was one of my punishments for failing to kill you_ , wrote Abbey and showed the page to Karuna.  He took and threw it from her.  She watched it sail into the bed filled with groaning, wounded humans.  Abbey looked back at her human and glared at him. 

“You are not in their tribe anymore,” shouted Karuna, grabbing Abbey by the shoulder and shaking her.  The yeti held herself as still as she could trying not to throw the already wounded human. “You are ours. Why didn’t you tell us?  We had to learn that ridiculous sign language, and then you had to learn to read and write.  We can’t communicate.  You keep these things from us, and I sometimes don’t know if I can trust you.”

The human finished, looking at the ground, his hands slipping off her shoulder.  She looked at him and then stood.  Maybe this, all of this, had been a mistake.  She should have corrected her tribes folly and thrown herself off the nearest cliff.  At the very least she shouldn’t have immediately gone and allied herself with the enemy.  It wasn’t too late.  She could leave.  She might have damned her people, but…

“Abbey?” Abbey turned to see Abominable stick his head into the tent.  The yeti smiled when he saw her and signaled for her to follow him out.  Abbey paused, almost looking back at Karuna.  Then she shook her head and went to walk out of the tent.

“Abbey, we need to get those stitches out,” said Indu, as she grabbed at Abbey.  Abbey hit the humans hand away and stormed out to meet the yeti.  Maybe she could convince the yeti leader to kill her.  If not by explaining her situation then by threatening to switch sides.  Not that Abbey really thought that was possible.  There was no way she could return to her tribe. “Abbey?”

Abbey looked up at Abominable and lifted an eyebrow.  The yeti looked at her and then his eyes narrowed.  He didn’t seem to worried that humans were throwing him cautious looks, though a couple of humans looked, if not hostile, then on their guard. 

“I heard you stopped an assassin and convinced the humans to let us fight against the mountain top yetis,” said Abominable.  Abbey shrugged.  The leader grinned and slapped her on the shoulder. “Good, we had been planning on forming our own attack.  We can no longer allow the threat they pose to remain.  Not only are they killing off our allies, they are also making it so we are losing the trust we have built between us based on the fact we are the same race.”

This couldn’t be happening.  Abbey was losing everyone.  This was all her fault.  She had turned her back on her people and made them vulnerable.  Now they were all going to die.  Everyone she had known and loved.  She had grown up with them, learned from them, fought with them, mourned with them.  How could she be so heartless?   Her legs gave out from under her, and she ran the middle finger and pointer finger of her sword hand across her neck. 

“No,” said Abominable, and Abbey lost any sense of trying to remain honorable and just started to cry.  Abominable continued to say something, but if was like Abbey had immersed herself in water.  Her ears rang, her vision was becoming blurry, and it was becoming harder and harder to breathe through her heavy lungs.  The voices became more drowned out and she weakly struck out as big hands and arms wrapped around her. 

The world slowly went back, breath impossible to find and her world became nothing.

There was a moment that Abbey realized she was still alive and she just wanted to wrap herself into the ice she was lying on and allow herself to suffocate.  A moment later she realized how pathetic that was and forced her eyes open.  She would face the day and the consequences it bore. 

When Abbey opened her eyes, she was shocked to realize that she was in a yeti sized tent.  It didn’t take her long to realize that must have been the reason that Abominable had tracked her down.  The yeti had said something about his tribe being the one to take on the attack from now on.  The humans had probably also wanted to separate the humans and yetis.  Abbey was technically a yeti. Even if she was a small one.  They must have sent Abominable to pick her up and remove her from the humans. 

“Well, the ice maiden awakes,” said Abominable.  Abbey jumped a little and then looked toward him. “That was a bad panic attack.”

Abbey just cocked her head to the side in confusion.  She then realized she had no real way to communicate with the yeti.  She remembered that Abominable was oddly good at reading her, but it would have been better if she had some way to communicate.  At least her pad so she could draw what she meant. 

“I got you out, but I’m afraid your friend was a little confused,” said Abominable.  Abbey looked away from him.  Now that she was away from Karuna, she still wasn’t sure what was right.  She’d killed her father.  It shouldn’t mean anything because he wasn’t her father anymore.  She didn’t have a real tribe anymore.  All she had was Karuna.  He was all that mattered, the only reason she was alive, and she had failed him.  Now he hated her.  Now the one thing that her life centered on hated her because someone of her race had hurt him and Abbey hadn’t been there to protect him.  She had instead killed her father.

“Seth tells me about you when he comes to visit or we trade.  I’m afraid I had to ask him since the three times I showed up, you weren’t present,” said Abominable.  Abbey blushed.  She did tend to hide when Abominable’s tribe came to visit. “Even he, I believe, doesn’t understand that even with humans you are left hollow.”

Abbey looked up at the yeti and he sighed.

“If what you told the humans is true then your tribe should have executed you.  While I don’t know anything about your tribe, but most tribes subscribe to a certain way of doing things, especially the traditional ones.  It would also explain why the left so many different marks.  Do you know why they banished you instead of killing you?” asked Abominable.  Abbey rolled her eyes and then thought about it for a moment before holding her fingers close together.  The humans’ way of showing something was small. “Hm, most traditional tribes either kill off their small yetis or keep them at the village controlling the weather.  I’m a bit confused how you’re a warrior at all to be frank.”

Since Abbey didn’t believe that there really was anyway to tell him she just nodded and made a writing motion.  Abominable looked at her in confusion and then shook his head.

“The lack of ability to communicate is one of the reasons a yetis mouth is sewn shut.  Still, the first loop is cut, and I have a proposal for you.” Abbey looked up at him in confusion. “With the humans you’ve been able to survive, better than I thought you would.  Most yetis once cast out either find another tribe, a couple make their own tribe, but most end up dying.  We are a people who need company.  We need the presence of something with a strong mind and body to feel safe.  We need our ancestors to give us strength and a feeling of belonging.  With the humans you found a reason to live, maybe even safety, but they do not hold their ancestors in their minds like we do.  They lack the practices of yetis that keep us all together as one tribe.”

Listening to him speak Abbey was just confused.  What was he trying to get at?  She knew she was weaker when she left her tribe, and she had known that she was going to die sooner than later. 

“I wish to adopt you into our tribe.” Now Abbey was genuinely surprised. “You’re strong Abbey.  It would be an honor.”

Abbey shook her head and dragged her fingers across her neck again.  Abominable glared at her.

“I’m not going to kill you,” he said gruffly.  Abbey rolled her eyes, but then shrugged.  That sign meant that the person making the sign was a traitor, but it could be used to ask by the traitor to ask for death. “I mean it.  We have two yetis in our tribe your size.  They are an important part of our tribe, but they are not warriors.” 

That surprised Abbey.  Yetis weren’t considered to be of any worth unless they were warriors.  Cripples were considered the lowest of the low in her old tribe.  While the old warriors were taken care of and given menial jobs around the village, they were also pitied and many young ones had been known to be scolded by the elders for suggesting that perhaps it would be kinder to simply put them out in the battlefield to die. 

“You are a powerful elemental, Abbey, all of your size are, but all yetis do better with blood lust helping them connect to the mountain and the moon,” said Abominable. “By joining our tribe, we will be able to remove the mountain top yetis altogether.  I know this is hard Abbey, but the people you knew turned on you.  If you join our tribe you must forget that you were ever one of them.”

Abbey now really did glare at the yeti.  What did he think she’d been trying to do?  She had sided with the enemy.  She had tied her life to a human, but that didn’t change facts.

“You killed someone you were once close to,” said Abominable after a moment of silence.  Abbey nodded once, her eyes now fixed on the close. Abominable sighed. “Very close to apparently.  I cannot say that I understand your situation, but I can tell you that, for good or bad, it’s about to be over.  What you will do now is solely up to you.  I’d suggest against going to humans, now because most of them still do not truth yetis and an overly excitable one might try to kill you, but also relying only on them in the future.  While the panic attack proved to me that you weren’t a spy, it did so because it proved that even with the human support your mind is becoming weaker because of what humans lack.  They do not have the stability you need to survive.  You are already showing physical signs of this distress; you must have lost ten pounds since the last time we met.”

Abbey blushed but pointed to the stitches across her mouth.  Abominable nodded.

“Yes, but I think it’s more than having your mouth sewn shut,” said Abominable. “As I said, in the end it’s your choice.  If you leave, I’ll understand.  If you return to the human I might tell them about your predicament.  If you choose to join my tribe then you’ll be able to choose between joining us in battle, or you could stay here and join the other small yetis to help control the weather back in our tents.  At the very least you should meet the other small ones.  They were the ones that helped you heal when I brought you in here.  I’ll send them in when I go out.  If you decide to join us then we’re getting ready outside.”

Abominable left and Abbey couldn’t’ help but feel that for someone who had repeated that it was her choice what she did, he seemed to be trying to box her into accepting his proposal for her to become a part of his tribe.  Abbey sighed.  There was just too much to consider.  She felt like she had done everything wrong. 

What would it have been like if she met a different human the day of her trial?  If she had met a warrior like the ones she’d met that morning or Lakshya’s father.  Certainly then she would have had no trouble killing them.  They would have fought, cursed, and every moment in a fight against them would have been that fight for survival.  They wouldn’t have cried when she pinned them to the ground.  There would have been honor in killing them.  A warrior’s soul rested and existed in battle.  To take their head back would have meant she would be where she really belonged.

Yet, even as Abbey fantasized, she couldn’t ignore the fact that her vision and her beliefs had been tainted by spending so much time around humans.  Plus, eventually she probably would have been asked to infiltrate and destroy a human settlement from the inside out, and maybe at that point she could have, but now it was impossible to see herself killing the innocent, the children, the weak women, the male scholars and farmers.  They had no place on the battlefield, and she no longer truly believed that made them contemptible.  Weak, yes, those that couldn’t fight she would always see as weak, but there was more to life than being strong. 

Her people, their way of viewing and tackling the world, it was destructive and hurtful.  Battling for something meaningful and the beliefs of the tribe had its place, but not at the expense of your people.  Not if meant that you had to do evil just to uphold what was already tattered honor. 

Abbey drew in a deep breath.  For a moment she let herself be Gana, be the young warrior who only thought of humans as the enemy.  She let her fill her lungs and raise her hatred and blood lust within her, and then she let Gana go.  She was Abbey, and as Abbey she had to protect the humans. Not because she had to protect one human, but because it was the right thing to do.  Her tribe, whether they triumphed or slunk back to the top of the mountain, would never consent to making a lasting treaty with anyone, not even other yetis.  They would just keep killing and killing until they were the only thing left. 

When Abbey opened her eyes she had made her decision.  Maybe it was made in haste, but that seemed to be her way.  Plus, her old master had always told her that even if you allow your mind the time to think things through, you can still rationalize yourself to believing the wrong thing.  Abbey must own who she was and her decisions.  And she had chosen.  She would become a new yeti, she would be part of a new tribe.  She would survive and continue building her beliefs until she figured out what was right for her. 

“Hey, she’s awake,” said a voice.  Abbey looked around her.  Three small yetis, two females and one male were sitting in a crescent around her.  They all stared at her in anticipation. “Abominable said you wanted to see us?”

She continued to just stare and finally she showed them where her armor had been sliced through.

“We can show you where you can get it fixed,” said a female who looked even smaller than Abbey.  Abbey nodded and signed _thank you_.  The male offered her his hand, after a moment of hesitation Abbey took and allowed them to show her the way. 


	16. A Tribe

The yetis weren’t sure what to do with Abbey.  The fact that she was a warrior was something they respected, but it was clear that they were used to small yetis were not really meant to be warriors.  Abbey guessed it was like one of the cripples from her old tribe trying to find accommodations for them.  They just didn’t know how to help her.  Abominable went and got her a spear and a sword from the humans, and then went back to get her some armor from the humans because the armorer didn’t have tools small enough to work with her stuff.  Abbey had rolled her eyes at that, she didn’t think she was that much smaller than everyone.  She usually reached up to their abdomen in height. 

Still, in those few hours before they would gather to ready themselves for the battle, Abbey found herself missing the human dwellings.  She missed living somewhere everything was her size.  Now everything was big again and felt slightly out of her reach.  It didn’t help that the yetis in this tribe stared at her like she was some sort of fascination.  Abbey thought it had been weird being hated by humans and living with them, but she had been able to brush that to the side.  But these were yetis, they shouldn’t look at her like she was a human girl that was doing things males did.  They should know she was a capable warrior. 

Abbey wasn’t that sorry when they finally moved for the debriefing.  Even though she was part of the battle, she sat with the other small yetis.  They were strange, but Abbey thought that might be why she felt comfortable around them.  They were the size of humans, and just as weak as the rest of them. 

The plan was rather simple.  The yetis at the top of the mountain had been fighting and losing for too long.  Now that Abominable had the permission from the humans to kill the other tribe, he did just that.  Well, no, the humans would have overlooked it if Abominable had eradicated her tribe.  But not only had the strange leader been asking permission to attack her tribe from the humans, but they had also been asking to spare as many of her people as they could, and the humans didn’t like that.

Personally, Abbey was starting to think she’d agreed to become allies with a mad yeti.  Because she had never heard of anything so ridiculous.  That was why you armed every one of the able bodied yetis.   Yetis didn’t take on yetis from other tribes unless they were desperate. It was a two way deal.  Yetis didn’t need to burden themselves with more mouths to feed, and any yetis that didn’t try to avenge their fallen comrades were considered worthless.  That was why even the youngest was either murdered or left out in the wild to die.

It took a moment for Abbey to force herself to pay attention again, only partly because it made her head hurt.  It was amazing how she kept trying to talk herself out of attacking the people who beat her and left her to die.  It was weird, really.  She actually didn’t dread it.  When she thought of killing them, it made her sad and tense and question what the hell she thought she was doing, but then she felt like what she was really getting was justice.  They had brought this on themselves.  They should have killed her.  Why hadn’t they killed her?

“Are you ready?” asked the small male yeti, Saulo, Abbey was pretty sure his name was. Abbey quirked her eyebrow. “You seemed distracted.  Are you sure you don’t want to just help us?  The other yetis won’t think less of you.  They wouldn’t fight us even if we kicked them out.  Plus, small yetis aren’t expected to fight.  We’re not big enough.”

Abbey rolled her eyes and then clapped her hands together sharply and then hit her left fist against her chest.

“She doesn’t seem conflicted to me,” said the smallest yeti, Gemma then she hit her chest while smiling widely. “She strong warrior.”

Abbey frowned as Saulo hit Gemma over the head.  Abbey stood, shifting the spear on her back and going to stand next to Abominable because she was fifty percent sure that he was signaling her over.  She could feel the blizzard in her bones; it had been distracting for most of the day.  The three small yetis had been building their own power from the storm.  Abbey had asked what they were doing, but they shook their heads and said that while it was a good thing that she could tell they were manipulating the elements, they would teach her how to do it when they had time. 

But that wasn’t important.  She walked up to Abominable and he held out a hand to her.  She took it and lifted her to his shoulder.  It was weird; she wasn’t quite small enough to fit on his shoulder.  Then he pushed open the door and Abbey breathed in as the moonlight hit her.  She hadn’t realized that so much time had passed.

Or how much she had missed the moon. 

The small yeti’s body collapsed against Abominable and for a time all she could do was stare up at the moon.  It wasn’t that she hadn’t noticed it during her exile or life, but it had never felt like this, like it was filling her.  It never felt like she truly had…

And then she realized she had felt it before, she just never really put together that they were together.  Which was ridiculous, she had always known that the ancestors were strongest at night, that basking under the moon brought you close to them the way fire sent them messages.  But, she no longer had any ancestors.  They had abandoned her when she had been exiled from her tribe.

“They will be stronger, truer, when you join my tribe,” said Abominable.  Abbey glanced down at him. “They have already accepted you.  You can feel that right?”

Abbey nodded and allowed Abominable to take her off him.  His tribe was strange.  Any respectable yeti from her tribe, if captured, would do their best to fight against him and avenge their tribe.  She was only different because she was dishonorable.

“The battle will start soon,” said Abominable, taking the lead and removing his own hammer from his back.  Abbey followed suit.  She could not think about it.  She would think and think and think herself off a cliff and into the very heart of an iceberg that would swallow her and suffocate her, and then where would Karuna be. 

The snow started to fall, first big drifts falling to the ground and then as the storm grew more and more powerful.  Abbey gripped it, in seconds she could feel others within the storm.  She couldn’t tell who was friend or foe, but now that she wasn’t suppressing the storm, she easily took the power behind her and let it fill her to the brim.  Ice covered her in a fine layer that crusted against her skin. 

The battle cries of the yetis rolled in her ears.  The only time when using your voice wasn’t considered a waste of air.  Abbey didn’t join the cry, once again, not her style.  Instead she allowed her natural abilities to guild her.  She had almost no sight.  While her eyes were better than humans, the sky was now truly covered by clouds and the snow obscured anything but what was right in front of her nose, so instead she felt with her instincts, her other senses, and her connection to all that was below freezing. 

The first yeti to fall under her spear didn’t see it coming.  Abbey stabbed it up, just at the right moment, and screwed the warriors head from chin through the brain.  Abbey continued the motion, even as the bigger warrior fell, and she twisted and freed her spear in a way that would destroy the brain of her opponent.  Cold blue blood mixed with the snow hit her face and probably covered her new armor, but Abbey was swiftly dodging and throwing a small ice dagger her next opponent’s way.

The dagger was easily swatted to the side, but by then Abbey had twisted and thrown her spear, which went through the yeti’s throat.  The warrior screamed, and Abbey momentarily wondered who she hit.  Had she known him?  Had they been meant to fight together?  Then his head went flying off, and Abbey shook her head and quickly went to retrieve her spear.  Perhaps Abominable’s tribe was right about small yetis had been wise.  Abbey had always heard the warriors of her tribe speak of battles where the mind would go numb and the only thing that mattered was spilling the blood of the enemy and making sure that the tribe remained safe.  Abbey, on the other hand, couldn’t stop her mind from wandering.

The battle was short.  Pathetically short.  Abbey’s tribe had always prided itself on it’s fighting prowess, and yet against a “well kept” tribe like Abominable’s it fell to pieces.

Somewhere along the way, Abbey lost her spear and resorting to using her sword.  She’d jump on the mountain top yetis and sink in her blade, sometimes getting in a killing blow, sometimes only wounding them.  At first she there had been a nagging fear that almost resembled hope that she would be like the humans on the battlefield.  That in the confusion she would end up killing as many from Abominable tribe’s as her own.  But no, there was a difference, subtle, in a way that Abbey usually had the right yeti by the fact she was running in the wrong direction wasn’t.  Maybe it was because she was allowed to glimpse and feel the power of the ancestors against, even though they weren’t alone, but Abbey knew she never struck down one of Abominable’s tribesmen.

Abbey watched and felt time after time her blade sink into flesh, tear at the bodies of those she’d once called friends.  It was bloody, and after a time, she couldn’t think about anything but the battle.  Instead she concentrated on Karuna.  He would die if she let her people win.  All would die under the thinking of the people of the mountain.  There was a time for peace.  A time when a warrior could lay down her spear and sword and live a different life.  A time when fighting and making everyone miserable wasn’t the right path.  Abbey didn’t understand it, maybe, but she could see its merits.  She could see that there were jobs and things that needed to be done that was just as important as fighting.

When the fight was over, a cry went up.  It was the same cry as it had always been, even for the top of the mountain tribe.  It wasn’t one of great victory and cheer.  It was a wailing keen.  The fight was over, they had won.  Victory was in their grasp and the only thing left to do was celebrate, but the victory cry always reminded Abbey of a sad wail.  Abbey looked around her.  The blizzard had been spent for the most part, its power had been stolen by all the yetis there at the time.  A few snowflakes still drifted down, but there were moments when the clouds would break and the moon would bathe the landscape. 

A tear fell down her cheek and froze before it fell from her cheek.  She touched where it had fallen and then her eyes traveled over across the landscape.  It was a massacre, bodies lay, blue, covered in armor and a small layer of snow.  In their midst were yetis the size and proportion of children.  No one younger than seven, but it was clear that her people really had thought that this was either where they would triumph or fall.  The only time yetis were given and taken to fight in battle before their trial was when desperation called for it.

Yet, even as tears fell down her cheeks, she didn’t feel any sadness in her mind or soul.  Something in her was breaking and mourning the loss of her people, but she didn’t feel it within herself. 

No kindness was left in her heart and she needed to find her new leader.  Soon the yetis at the top of the mountain would leave her mind, the way they had for these last few months. 

How much would her life change under Abominable?  Was she really going to abandon her human’s friends?  Abbey couldn’t see any reason she would have to stay as close.  The biggest danger to Karuna’s safety had always been her own tribesmen; they would be almost wiped out by now.  A few might try to survive the mountain, but unless they had each other, then they were lost.  No yeti could survive on their own. 

A cry, this one angry and screaming, echoed through the mountain.  Abbey walked toward it, the moon peaked out, and she realized that Abominable’s tribe had at least three yetis were being restrained by rope and other yetis from attacking.  They were yetis from her tribe.  Not many, but instead of killing them outright, the yetis from Abominable’s tribe seemed to be trying to subdue them.  Abbey looked around.  She could see that others in Abominable’s tribe were not looting her people but checking to see if any still had any life left in them. 

It isn’t until that moment that Abbey realizes how dedicated Abominable is to his promise.  When Abbey heard it, she had thought that perhaps he meant to try and change her people.  They wanted to kill as few yetis as possible.  That makes no sense to Abbey.  It wasn’t like yetis were going extinct, at least, not from what she had heard from Seth.  So why did they save yetis that would kill and put all his people in danger?

Would he be stupid enough to try this with the cripples left behind?  Most cripples had once tasted battle but badly wounded beyond cure.  They would know how to kill effectively. 

“Abbey.” The small yeti turned to see Abominable waving at her to come over.  She navigated her way across the battlefield.  He smiled, a hard sort of look on him that was made strange shadows the moon caste on him. “We have captured a coherent warrior about your age.  I wish to see how she reacts to you.”

Abbey stiffened.  That was interesting.  Apparently he still didn’t really trust her despite what he had said.  He was still trying to see if she said the truth.  Abbey thought it was a bit odd.  He was willing to try and rehabilitate her people, but because a rival tribe had cut crosses in her hands and sewn her mouth shut. 

No matter how much the humans changed yetis, there was still a constant in their traditions.  Forever they had the ancestors whispering in their heads, reminding them of their past.  And yet, Abominable’s tribe is much different than her own.  They show an odd interest in sparing the yetis, something even the humans, weak as they are, did not think to do. 

By the time Abbey sees the yeti they wish her to talk or interact with, the moon is once again covered by clouds.  The yeti screams and fights against the bounds that she is tied in.  Her eyes flit from side to side, madness and confusion in her limbs.  Why would they capture her?  They killed all her people, all that mattered.  They can torture nothing out of her. 

And then she sees Abbey as the small yetis come toward her.  There is no more confusion.  The yeti they captured is indeed Pyry.  The tall yetis eyes alight with renewed hate as she meets Abbey’s purple ones.  The small yeti walks toward the warrior that was supposed to be her battle sister.  Their eyes never stray from one another, but Abbey’s hand absently goes to her neck where the necklace of moon ice still hangs around her neck. 

“Traitor,” shouts Pyry.  Abbey brings up her hand and splays her fingers over her mouth before clenching her hands into a fist and hitting her lips.  A flash of pain where the threads are coming undone sends signals to Abbey’s brain, but she ignores it.  Pyry just clenches her teeth together and growls. “How could you?  I thought you were enough of a coward when you came back empty handed.  Now you shame yourself more by joining with the traitor yeti’s tribe?”

By this time Abbey is now standing inches from her old friends face.  Pyry’s hands have been bound behind her back, but that makes her no less of a warrior.  She shrugged and then stepped back and laced her fingers together to sign “join” and once she was sure Pyry had seen it she then signs humans.  Pyry’s face contorts into extreme hatred and anger and she fights her bounds with a ferocity that Abbey had not thought her friend possible of.  Pyry, while a trickster, had always seemed controlled.  Here, she has given up to her emotions. 

Then the yeti sags, all fight suddenly stolen from her body. 

“You were supposed to be a sign of change.  You were supposed to be our guiding light to ridding ourselves of the humans from our mountains,” whispered Pyry.

“Is that why you let her live?” asked Abominable.  Pyry’s head snapped to him and some spirit entered her eyes and she was tugging on her restraints again and the yetis holding her in place had to dig in their heels to stop her from moving forward. Abbey let Abominable pull her backward a couple of inches.

“She is a traitor.  She’ll turn her back on you,” said Pyry.  Abominable looked at her and then nodded.  Abbey held her breath, and it only took her a moment to figure out what the best route for escape would be if the leader turned on her.  The thought that the best way to start fostering a good relationship between his tribe and Pyry would be to kill Abbey the traitorous small yeti. 

“How did she come to be banished by your tribe?” asked Abominable seriously.  Pyry opened her mouth to respond and then snapped it shut.  Abbey watched her old friend in confusion as the big yeti drew her head down in thought.  Then Abbey remembered.  The scars that she had been given were not only not the proper punishment, they were also confusing.  They were given for two completely different things; at least, Abbey was pretty sure they meant different things. 

Abominable smacked Pyry hard enough for blue blood to start pouring from her nose.  Abbey felt herself tense.  She didn’t want her old friend to hurt.  To die in battle was one thing, but to be beaten and tortured just so Abominable could figure out if he really would allow Abbey into his tribe, that was unacceptable.  If Abbey thought it would make a difference, she might threaten to run in order to spare her friend the humiliation. 

“Tell it to me straight girl.  Don’t wallow around trying to find the right lie,” Abominable’s voice was firm.  Pyry glared up at him.

“She failed her trial and came back without engaging the enemy in battle,” spat Pyry.

“My tribe has dropped many of our more barbaric practices, but that doesn’t mean we have forgotten them.  The price for failing the warriors trial is death,” said Abominable. “You gave her many punishments, but as she is still breathing, you did not give her the correct one.”

“She was supposed to be our guiding light.  Small yetis signal great change and prosperity for our people, and yet, now it seems instead she will be our downfall,” said Pyry.  She glared at Abominable. “You would do well to be rid of her.  Caste her out before she brings your tribe to ruin too.”

“She is not officially of my tribe yet,” said Abominable.  Pyry looked at him in confusion though she continued to sneer.

“She should be dead then, unless…”

“She has taken refuge with the humans,” said Abominable simply and all the blood left Pyry’s face making her look even whiter than usual. “From what I’ve been able to figure out.  She engaged a human male in combat, but was unable to finish him off.  After you had banished her, that same human saved her life.”

“A life dept,” whispered Pyry.  Abominable nodded. “Then we have truly lost our way.”

“Perhaps you should have listened to your smallest yeti instead of branding her and throwing her out,” said Abominable.  Pyry looked up again and spat at the leader.  Abominable opened his mouth, but Abbey reached up and put her hand on his arm.  Nothing he could say would bring peace or understand to Pyry.  If he said it had happened as it was supposed to, then it would mean Abbey was always meant to be a traitor and their tribe had been destined to be destroyed. If he said the tribe at the top of the mountain was supposed to follow Abbey’s example then it would mean they would have had to give up their honor in order to make nice with a group of creatures that had killed many of their friends and family and almost driven them to extinction. 

Thankfully Abominable heeded her advice, instead he knocked Pyry again and Abbey felt her chest tighten as her former friend’s body fell to the ground.  The small yeti stared until she realized that Pyry was still breathing and then Abbey let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding.  Abominable was talking again, something about going back to the encampment while he sent others to go up and retrieve whoever was still left at the top of the mountain. 

All Abbey felt was numb. 

The storm had been spent by now.  Hardly any clouds were still in the skies and only thin clouds lazily drifted across the sky.  Abbey slipped off her glove and concentrated a little extra of her natural coolness into her hand.  She felt a bit flushed with heat everywhere else, but she caught one of the last snowflakes onto her fingers.  The white star clung to hand and Abbey brought it close to her face.  There had to be a science to it, Karuna had talked about but Abbey hadn’t been paying attention.  She could feel a snowflake being made if she concentrated hard enough on a cloud.

Abbey wanted her book of snowflakes.  She wasn’t sure why.  The gift had been nice, but she was surrounded by snowflakes she could look at.  It was more meant for when it was summer and she was missing her snow when it was too hot. 

Abominable led her to a tent where the three small yetis were getting ready to go to sleep.  Saulo saw her standing there and grabbed her away from Abominable and Abbey found herself conking out as soon as she curled up with other three.  It had been so long since she had slept in a pile like this.  Sure, there had been that time when she had been wounded, but the humans had to bundle up, and they were hot.  Now she was a tangled in limbs, sharing cold between them.

When Abbey woke the next morning and her head was in Gemma’s lap.  Abbey stretched, the night before she had stripped completely, and now she was the only one with only her underclothes on.  Abbey blinked her eyes as she looked up at the other yeti.

“Good you’re awake,” said Gemma, the smallest yeti. “I’ll go tell the humans.”

Abbey blinked and tried to stand.  She looked over at Adhara and cocked her head to the side.  The yeti smiled.

“I’ll go get you something to wear.  I don’t know what you wore with the humans, but we don’t wear armor unless we have to,” said Adhara.  Abbey turned to Saulo.  He smiled and shrugged.  He was wearing a simple tunic that looked like it was woven out of yak fur.  Adhara brought Abbey a similar looking tunic and thin breeches.  The clothes were thin and Abbey wouldn’t dare walk into battle with them, but then again, that seemed to be the point.  Abbey glanced up to see Saulo, waiting until he left like Karuna or Lakshya, except, these were yetis.  They didn’t care.  She’d slept with them and Saulo had been almost naked. Abbey shook her head and started to pull on the clothes they had given her.  Abbey brought her hand up to her mouth.  She wasn’t used to not having her face mostly covered.   

“The human is here,” said Gemma, she then got jostled to the side by Indu, who practically threw herself onto Abbey.  Abbey quickly tried to center herself and bring the cold back into her body, but she wasn’t sure how successful she was. 

“Abbey,” said Indu and then she looked up, smiling widely even as seemed to shiver a little.  Then she glared. “Why are your lips still sewn shut?”

“We’re getting them out when we get back to the village.  Part of the whole, making Abbey part of the tribe thing,” said Adhara, coming over and looking over at Indu. 

“Oh, you’re leaving with the yetis?” asked Indu.  Abbey nodded.

“She has to,” said Adhara. 

"She’s a yeti.  Yeti’s need a tribe,” said Saulo.

“She was doing fine with us,” snapped Indu.  Saulo shrugged. 

“Yeti’s need ancestors, humans have none,” said Saulo.  Indu opened her mouth and then closed it.  Gemma grabbed Saulo and dragged him out.  Indu watched him, glaring at the small yetis’ backs. 

“We have ancestors,” said Indu finally.  Indu then reached into her bag and held out Abbey’s sketchpad.  Abbey reached out and took the pad and quickly started flipping until she found a picture of Karuna and showed it to Indu.  Indu made a face. “He’s fine, just a little shaken up by the fighting.  Kshama has him resting. He’d be here if he could.”

Abbey wasn’t sure if she believed Indu, something about her face.  Abbey flipped to Lakshya’s picture.

“He hasn’t woken up yet,” said Indu with a shrug.  Abbey looked at her in alarm.  She was pretty sure that Lakshya had been alright when she left.  Well, he hadn’t made it to see her but they hadn’t told her he was dead. “He’s stable at least.”

Abbey let her pad fall to her side.  Karuna was apparently avoiding her because he no longer trusted her, and Lakshya had been hurt so bad he was stuck in what sounded like a coma. 

“So, you’re really going to leave with your people?” asked Indu.  Abbey started to shake her head, then remembered that she was a promised part of Abominable’s tribe, and she nodded. Indu sighed. “Can’t say I blame you.  We’ll miss you Abbey.  You’ll come and visit us, right?”

Abbey nodded.  At the very least she would visit.  She wasn’t sure what she was going to do in the long run.  Maybe it would be best if she lived with Abominable’s tribe from now on, but part of her no longer wanted to be on the mountain at all.  Which was absurd and she pushed the notion away, because what else was there but the mountain?  Yeah, sure, there was a whole world, but it wasn’t her home.  The mountain was her home.  But then again, the tribe at the top of the mountain used to be family. 

“Can we visit too?” asked Adhara.  Both Abbey and Indu looked over at the other yeti in shock, having forgotten she was even there.  Indu blinked, shrugged, titled her head, and the bit her lip before she answered.

“Uh, sure, I think.  I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” said the human, looking Adhara up and down carefully.  Adhara, while not dressed in any fashionable sense, was showing a lot blue skin, some of which had been painted over in black with intricate designs that the other two small yetis also had.

“Don’t worry about Saulo.  He doesn’t have a mouth brain filter, and I swear half the things he says to be insulting on purpose, but he’s harmless,” said Adhara with a shrug.  Indu still looked a bit shocked, and she was giving Adhara a weird look.  She also looked a little awkward, like she wanted to say something but couldn’t bring herself to, biting her lips and rocking on her heels. “How about I promise we’ll visit in a month, max?  That way Abbey’ll be able to have time to settle in, and you can setup arrangements with your tribe so four small yetis can stay in your village for a couple of days instead of one.”

“Um, right sure,” said Indu, still looking out of depth. 

Abbey quickly wrote, _are you alright?_   Which Indu answered with a glare.

“Anyway, we should get going Abbey.  The tribe’ll be finishing packing things up to head back to our village about now,” said Adhara, she pointed to where Gamma was closing the tent’s door. 

“Wait,” said Indu, she dug into her bag again and grabbed a brush and shoved it into Abbey’s hands again. “There, maybe you’ll actually keep your hair from getting into a rats nest again.”

Then Indu threw herself at Abbey, giving Abbey a hard hug.  Abbey returned the hug, careful not to squeeze the human too tightly, and then watched as Indu practically fled.  The other two yetis entered back in.  Gamma looking amused and Saulo looking petulant. 

“So, does that mean you can show us how to put up our hair like hers?” asked Saulo.  Abbey stared at him for moment and then almost laughed at herself.  The other three watched her in amusement and then smiled back at her when she nodded.


	17. A Small Family

They performed the ritual to welcome her into the tribe that night.  Abbey had no idea when Abominable had come up with the thing.  It wasn’t like there would ever have been a circumstance like this.  Well, at least, Abbey didn’t think so. 

The whole thing was a little weird.  Abbey walked into the space, Abominable guiding her.  The small yetis had painted her with designs like theirs when they first came back and then told her to put her hair up in a simple bun when she was done.  The place she was led into was dim, the sun blocked by the thick pelts that made up a huge tent.  In the tent the three small yetis sat on a raised platform, their heads bowed in meditation as they kept a steady flurry of snow falling over the floor of the tent.  She was led to the middle of the tent where a circle of elders were already chanting.

Abbey was a little surprised by the elders.  She had thought that Abominable’s tribe only had Abominable, but it seemed that they had elders who performed certain things too.  They must also help, or maybe they were just for show.  Abbey sighed and kneeled when Abominable motioned for her too.

From that point on, the rest of the ceremony all her concentration was focused on sensation.  Mostly the sensation of having leather threaded threw her lips.  Somehow it was worse than when it had been stitched up.  First they sniped the threads and then a Abominable, with what looked like a healer by his side, carefully removed the thread.  Abominable talked through the whole thing, talking about joining and change and making connections.  All Abbey could concentrate on was the pain.  She tried meditating, briefly, but she really wasn’t that good at it. 

When it was finished, Abbey hardly noticed.  It was nothing grand, and it wasn’t until the three small yetis took her to the side and helped her meditate and move past the healing pain in her lips, did she realize that she did have a connection.  It was everything that she remembered.  It was everything she had forgotten. 

Abbey woke up the next morning to see the three small yetis playing with her brush.  She watched them for a couple of minutes.  It was strange.  Abbey had become so used to how humans acted.  Karuna would be joking and playfully running away from Indu as she tried to brush his hair.  Lakshya would either find a reason to leave the room or just let Indu have her way while promising to take it all out when he left.  In the end, Indu would huff and sit down heavily in front of Abbey and either start playing with Abbey’s hair or instruct Abbey on how to do hers. 

The three small yetis were all doing their hair, Saulo, a male, actually looked the most interested in doing something fun with his.  Eventually Abbey pushed herself up and was assaulted by the three happy yetis all talking about human designs and customs and what else they put on their body.  

Of course first they forced her to try and talk.  It didn’t really work at first.  Abbey had hardly been able to whisper, and it had just felt weird.  So they had her sing a note every once in a while.  They would sing a note and Abbey would try to copy it.  Abbey thought it was weird.  She had never sung before.  She hadn’t heard that much music with singing either.  Sure there was the Himalayan Yak Band, but they didn’t have too many vocalists, and the little singing they did have wasn’t really words. 

But Abbey tried and let Saulo brush her hair and then placated the others from playing with her hair by promising to do something interesting with theirs, which she communicated with body movements and whispered words.  The three didn’t know sign or how to read.  Abbey then started to draw some hairstyles for her to try.  The yetis did know the basics, ponytails and braids, but they were interested in trying human designs that they thought were more beautiful and less slapdash.  Their words, not Abbey’s. 

Before she could try any, Gamma pointed out that they needed to show Abbey around her new home.  Abbey followed them out, and it soon became clear that living in Abominable’s tribe was going to be difficult.  They really weren’t a warrior tribe, they didn’t even have the sort of makeup that her tribe had had.  When she was able to ask the three yetis they shrugged and pointed out that while the tribe was raising a good amount of yaks, they still went hunting, especially when the more dangerous creatures started attacking the herd.  So she could be a hunter and watch the yaks during the down times. 

It wasn’t long until they had taken her to the other herders, as they were called.  The bigger yetis obviously had no idea what to do.  One male eventually agreed to talk with Abbey, but only after the other three left saying they had to monitor the weather.  He was still nervous, but after Abbey admitted that she was rubbish with a bow and arrows and they ended up sparring, well, apparently beating one of them in a match was a good way to break the ice. 

Only a couple of others sparred with her before they started asking her questions, mostly about her fighting style and how many small yetis were in the tribe on the top of the mountain, then about small yetis.  Abbey whispered her answers, though now at least she could talk harshly that was a little above nothing.  Eventually they started talking about their tribe.  It was interesting, especially since they started with small yetis.

Small yetis in their tribe were meant to control the weather, which Abbey had known a little before, but Abbey also listened to how they talked about them.  They yetis seemed to think of small yetis as almost a different race.  They obviously respected them, but they also weren’t sure what they really did beyond that.  They asked Abbey if she was good at controlling her abilities over ice, and Abbey nodded but explained that she had been born a warrior.  They nodded at this, and once again started to talk to her about their jobs, and it was interesting, while they obviously loved hunting, they also loved watching and tending to the yetis. 

At one point she took out her sketchpad and started drawing some of the weapons she used when hunting.  They’d taken a look and one had tried to pick her up.  Abbey hadn’t reacted well, before when she was picked up there was always some sort of warning and reason.  And sure, when they had walked to the village some yetis had offered to carry them, but they’d asked and listened when they refused.  Of course, Adhara had had to ask for a ride a near the end of their journey.  The yeti looked a little surprised at her reaction and it took a while for Abbey to explain that she had been trained to keep up with yetis their size and that even if they had run all the way to the village yesterday, she still would have been able to keep up.  The other yetis seemed skeptical of this but so introduced her to the artisans of their tribe and left her after telling her to meet them in the morning so they could go over what her schedule would be like tending the yaks and hunting schedules and the like.

Then she was met an old yeti female who asked her what she thought she was doing there.  Abbey showed her her drawings.  The old yeti ripped the pad from her hand and started to flip through the pages.  She didn’t say anything, or ask any questions, and the whole time she had an expression that the humans would say looked like she had just sucked lemons. 

“Berg!” she finally shouted, throwing the pad back at Abbey.  She quickly stowed it back in her shirt. “Give that back, I’ll put it somewhere safe while you dye.”

Abbey clutched it to her chest for a moment, but the old yeti just intensified her glare and eventually Abbey relented just as a young male, perhaps in his twenties, came around the corner.

“Yes?” he asked the old woman, not even noticing Abbey. 

“Show her around and then set her dyeing.  Tell everyone to just tell her what’s going on and not ask questions, her throats probably too sore to talk after having her mouth sewn shut for so long,” said the old yeti pointing at Abbey.  Berg looked down at her and blinked in surprise.  Abbey looked back at him and then when she tried to look at the old woman and ask what dyeing was.  It sounded familiar, but Abbey couldn’t place it.  Abbey was pretty sure that the yetis around her were weaving, something Kshama and Indu would do from time to time on smaller looms. 

“Alright, well, I guess I can give you a tour.  Do you know about weaving?” he asked.  Abbey held her fingers close together in the human sign for “a little”.  Thankfully he seemed to understand. Then she dodged his hand as he tried to pick her up.  He stumbled a little, clearly completely thrown off. “Um, I’m not going to hurt you.  I just need to lift you up so you can see everything.”

Abbey shook her head and took another deliberate step away from Berg.  The yeti floundered for a second before huffing and signaling Abbey to follow him.

“Right, well, come on then,” said Berg. “Anyway, these are the looms, you probably won’t get to touch one for a while.  Rosemary, the old stinker from earlier, she runs the place and everyone starts out somewhere, usually carding and scouring, but you’re a bit small to work the tools.  She might have you shave the yaks, that’s always fun.”

Abbey listened, looking around her as she did and wondering about how the tribe worked exactly.  It seemed much more human, what with every yeti having different jobs, and from the way Berg talked about it, most yetis only had one job.  Abbey couldn’t help but be impressed.  Apparently most yetis were working on designs they had created by themselves, and the result was really remarkable. 

“Most of these will be sold and traded with humans,” said Berg offhandedly. “The humans seem to like it, and the exchange of goods Abominable says has made it so we’re one of the more respected and trusted monsters.  Uh, monsters are anything not human or animal.”

Abbey nodded absently.  She continued to look around.  There was a lot of red.  She wondered where all the color came from.  Was it blood they treated somehow?  But that didn’t seem likely.  Even human warriors, well, human guards, seemed oddly squeamish about blood.

It took them some time to get to the dyeing room.  There was some initial confusion about what Abbey would be able to do since the vats were too tall for her, but someone who was wrapping the yeti wool called her over to help, and from there Abbey did a lot of odd jobs while the yetis chatted at her. 

The instructions for her job were basic, but then the yetis near her all talked about the dyeing process and how dyes were made.  From there it went to trading with the humans, and then how the their tribe had always lived further down the mountains then most tribes and had learned to hold cold in the core of their bodies long ago.  Which moved into a string of facts about their culture, including the fact that it used to be only one or two yetis would learn and inherit the skills from an old yeti.  Now that they made them not just for the tribe, but also for trade, they had stepped up production. 

Actually, the entire process was very human, and so were Abominable’s yetis.  They were always talking.  The room was constantly filled with the sound of at least four yetis and five different conversations it seemed.  Unlike the tribe on the top of the mountain where this many conversations only happened at big gatherings, usually in a room this big with only a little over half a dozen people there would be one maybe two conversations at the most, and then it would be done in quickly stated facts, sign language, body motions, and a million small ways of communicating without actually speaking.  Actually, it was kind of weird how much humans and this tribe of yetis relied on formal ways of communicating.  Not that Abbey’s tribe wasn’t formalized to a certain extent, but there was more wiggle room to just let your expressions and how you presented yourself say what you wanted naturally.  It wasn’t like the formalized version didn’t get the messages confused due to someone either forgetting a word or forgetting a rule. 

Then Berg came and got her, by then Abbey’s head had started to pound and her hands and arms had been splattered in dye.  She gratefully let herself be pulled away, this time paying attention to everyone working on their looms.  The dye room (as they called it), the majority of them were female, Abbey had started to wonder if they had started becoming more human in that way too.  What with the constant chatter and the fact that every yeti had only one or two jobs that they did in their lifetime.  Then again, a lot of the more undesirable jobs of her tribe had been given to cripples, other yetis took up as hobbies, and only a select few were jobs that actually circulated. 

Abbey was led to a little corner where a small white canvas had been setup with a few things of paint and a ratty looking excuse for a paint brush.

“We thought you might like to do some of your pictures.  Supplies probably aren’t up to your standard, but we all loved your pictures,” said Berg.  Abbey looked at him in shock.  Berg recoiled at her look, though Abbey was sure she hadn’t glared at him. “Sorry, did you not want us to look at them?”

Even as Berg asked the question he looked genuinely confused as to why he was asking the question.  Abbey shook her head.  These were yetis, no matter what they had picked up from the humans, they still were a tightly knit tribe, tied by their ancestors it made them a group that just had a much more involved dynamic with a tribe unlike a human village. 

“Fine, as long as the…” said Abbey and then she brought her hand up to her throat.  Berg titled his head to the side. 

“Oh, yeah, your pad is fine.  Rosemary really loves them, you might have some trouble getting it back from her,” said Berg, he then clapped Abbey awkwardly and gently on the shoulder. He then quickly retreated and Abbey sighed, looking back at the canvas.  She sat down on the stool, lifting a brush and checking the bristles.  She hadn’t really been interested in painting before, but drawing had become something that helped her relax. 

So she started.  The materials were different.  Abbey was pretty sure that the paint was really dyes, the canvas made of treated hide, and the brush was really pathetic.  Still, after a while Abbey got lost experimenting.  Her pictures had always been hyper literal.  Very good, but almost picture good, even the ones she drew simply from her imagination.  She couldn’t be that way with the brush, and while that started as an annoyance, she was soon having fun.  Abbey had been a natural with a pencil, she had no trouble with techniques, it hand moving instinctively to make the right move to convey a shadow or texture.  The fact Abbey didn’t have the skill with the materials she had been given, and that gave her a lot of freedom. 

“Interesting.” Abbey jumped and looked behind her.  It wasn’t often that she got so caught up in something that someone actually shocked her by sneaking up on her.  She turned to see Abominable standing behind her.  He smiled when their eyes met and held out Abbey’s sketchpad.  Abbey took it and cradled the pad to her chest. “How was your day?”

Abbey shrugged.  Abominable raised an eyebrow and then shook his head.

“If you don’t start using your voice, you’ll never get it back,” he said.  Abbey was tempted to shrug again.

“What are you doing?” Abbey was able to say before her voice caught again.  Abominable put a hand on her shoulder and motioned as if asking her to continue on with him. Abbey let herself be led away, a little hesitant, but she wasn’t going to argue with the leader of the tribe. 

“Our new members will be arriving tomorrow most likely,” said Abominable, instead of answering her.  Abbey looked up at him with a mix of confusion and annoyance.  Then she realized who he was talking about and felt all her blood run hot for a second.  They were talking about taking whoever they captured from the top of the mountain to the camp.  Abbey then felt herself pause.  It hadn’t been something she’d thought about in a while.  Her parents had been important to her, but that was because no matter if they were separated as soon as Abbey no longer needed their presence to survive, that connection between child and parents was strong through life.  Abbey hadn’t thought about her brother since her exile. 

He would be three or four years old.  What would he think of her?  Would Abominable’s people be able to incorporate him into their way of life?  What would happen to him if they couldn’t?  Would there be a time when Abominable’s tribe had to just cut their losses and kill him?  And what about Pyry were they really going to try and save her?  What was the point?  The only thing Abominable was going to accomplish in trying to save her tribe was amassing enough prisoners to incite a riot. 

It would make more sense for Abominable to kill them.

Abbey pushed the thought away.  Better not to think about it.  She had done what she had, joining and killing the humans would have been wrong, both by her own code and just in general.  The humans didn’t deserve to be killed and wiped out. 

But neither had her people.  Her people had been born on the mountain, they had been the ones pushed back.  They were the ones who knew how to survive the harsh weather of the mountain, the humans were invaders.

Abbey shook her head.  They weren’t her tribe anymore, at all.  She was now a part of Abominable’s tribe and his tribe was in good relations with the humans.  She had done right by her new tribe, and she had been accepted by his people and the ancestors. 

“Come Abbey, let’s go eat,” said Abominable, placing a big hand gently on her back.  They went to what looked like a large dining hall where at least most, if not all, of the yetis were gathered for dinner.  They hall was loud and Abbey found herself herded to where the other small yetis were gathered.  They all happily jumped at her.  Abbey figured that this might become a common thing.  The tribe had made specific accommodations for their smaller yetis.  Abbey accepted this, during meal times, her old tribe had also made accommodations, they had just been unvoiced ones since Abbey was technically supposed to do everything as well as everyone else despite her height.  The only real difference coming in clothing size and weapon size.  But that hadn’t meant her comrades hadn’t helped her.  There were unspoken ways of helping and taking into account her smaller size in everyday matters.  This more organized way felt more open and truthful. 

The three small yetis began immediately asking her questions and when they found out she hadn’t been doing the singing exercise things Saulo rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air while Adhara made her sing even as they started asking questions.  Even if Abbey was loud enough to be heard over the din, she wasn’t sure if she would have got to say much at all.  As it was, Abbey ended up borrowing a pencil that Abominable had on him for some reason, and drawing a few answers, a couple of which were completely misconstrued, not that they appeared to care. 

Saulo and Adhara didn’t seem to breathe as they talked.  It wasn’t that they couldn’t be still, they didn’t have the same personality as Karuna who needed to fill every moment with chatter.  At least Abbey didn’t think so.  They were just so excited.  Saulo came up with question after question, never really waiting for much of answer before he had another question, some of them were personal, some were abstract, most had to do with asking about the “oddities” of human culture, meditation, and individualism.  Adhara had less questions it seemed, but that was because as soon as she asked she had a comment to make on the question, something to explain why she was asking or a story connected to it, that would lead to more questions.  Her questions started about her day, briefly touched on her other tribe, before Gemma hemmed and said something that changed Adhara’s questions toward ones about humans too.

Gemma just let the other two ask the questions.  She wasn’t completely silent, but she seemed the one most in control of her excitement.  She was the one who told the other two to take a breath and also was the one to clarify the questions. 

After dinner Abbey was taken by the three to do to their own ice springs.  Gemma frowned at the stains on Abbey's hands, the dark reddish purple dye stuck to her skin even after she tried to scrub it away.

"We need to get you painted," Gemma muttered.

Abbey shook her head. "I'm not..." her voice broke and Gemma hummed and Abbey joined with her.

"Of course you are," said Adhara, swimming over to sit next to Abbey.  They were naked, and Abbey found herself blushing.  Her tribe hadn't been as modest as humans, but there were very few times that her tribe ever got completely naked, they usually wore something, the idea that wearing furs and leather even sparingly, counted as armor. 

"The others have it too," said Gemma. "Less than us, and some don't put any on except for celebrations, it's usually hidden under their everyday clothes."

"Don't humans paint their skin?" asked Soula, swimming over. Abbey shook her head. "Really?"

"They do hair things and dye their clothes instead," said Gemma.  Abbey blinked and slipped out of the ice and got her pad.  She quickly drew some sketches of the yetis wearing.  The clothes weren't especially bright, but they were distinctive, and the yetis doing the dyeing seemed to have splashed themselves very deliberately.  The three small yetis looked at it in confusion. 

"What?" asked Soula.

"Oh, well, yeah, we know how to do braids, obviously.  But we've seen more interesting things on the internet with Abominable," said Adhara, then she smiled. "Could you put our hair up.  Soula brought some stuff and it seems to work better wet."

Before Abbey could protest, Adhara had shoot out of the water.  Gemma watched in mild interest before telling Abbey to put the pad close to the frozen pound and get back in the water.  Abbey ended up spending some time playing with Soula's hair and showing the other two yetis how to do cornrows, which she had never really done more than once before.  The yetis seemed impressed with the end result and Soula seemed to try and find the best way to see his hair, bouncing in the water and making weird happy noises.  Abbey really didn't understand where humans came up with the idea that females talked too much, the noisiest creatures she knew all seemed to be male. 

That night she had a little trouble sleeping.  Apparently it was customary, almost every night, for a group of yetis to get together and sing "lullabies" half the night to the entire tribe.  The constant noise was bad enough, but the group walked through the village singing.  It was frustrating.  When they were close they were too loud to sleep through, and when they were too far away Abbey found herself straining to hear them as if they were some dangerous predator that she had to keep constant vigilance of. 

At some point she drifted away.  Out of the village and up the mountain where a gentle falling of snow added a fine layer onto the mountain.  Finally she reached her old village. 

The cry of a fallen warrior mixed with the roar of a victor.  Abbey found herself bodiless going into the village.  There bodies of yetis she had known growing up littered the ground.  The yeti who also did war paintings.  The yeti with no legs who had always told the training warriors stories of great yetis past.  The sightless yeti who had eventually been in charge of skinning and preparing meat because she complained about it so much and somehow made the raw meat taste heavenly. 

Their blood was spilled across the ice. The blue sinking in as their souls went screeching to the ancestors.  Abbey felt her throat close.  Soon there would be no one living to remember the ancestors, to send prayers and keep them in their minds and hearts.  There would be nothing left.  The ancestors and the tribe would be gone.  Nothing would remain to keep them. 

A  cry from the main building went up and Abbey found herself in the room where her punishment had been dealt out where yetis from Abominable's tribe were slaughtering what was left of her old tribe.  Yetis that Abbey knew could not be at the top of the mountain, Berg, Rosemary, yetis from dinner, yetis like Aditi and Nishant from the herders were there with swords and spears as they killed the weakest of the old, lamed, and the babies. 

Abominable's yetis cut through the weak with no hesitation.  Yetis Abbey had grown up with were slaughtered.  This wasn't an honorable fight.  These were yetis that no longer had the ability or hadn't yet developed the skills they needed to fight.  Abbey felt her body drawing slowly toward the fighting.  One little yeti with a spear in hand, her eyes narrowed as she got ready to engage the overwhelming amount of enemies.  She was Abbey's little sister.  Abbey could feel it in her bones.  Her blood sang, so while even though she had never really seen her sister but in brief glimpses, she this was her.

And then Berg cried and drove a spear through her and ripped it through the yetis small body.  Berg and all of Abominable's yetis yelled out in triumph.  They had won.  Abbey's tribe was gone.  Abbey's tribe's blood was spread across the white ground.  They were gone.  They were all gone. Abbey screamed and then charged.  She had no weapons, she was small, but she could still do some damage before Abominable's yetis killed her. 

"Abbey wake up!" Abbey sat up.  The thin neck under her hands convulsed and more hands grabbed at Abbey. She struck out at them and then fought to regain balance when someone knocked her over.  Abbey had to let go of the thing holding her against the ground. 

"Abbey snap out of it," Abbey stopped struggling.  She recognized that voice.  It was Saulo, he hadn't gone with them up the mountains.  Abbey forced herself to relax.  Slowly she was awake enough to see that the other three small yetis had circled around her.  They all looked so concerned. "What is wrong?  What did you dream about?"

"Nothing," said Abbey, her voice still soft.  The yetis looked at each other in concern and then down at Abbey.

"Alright," said Adhara slowly, but then she smiled and hugged Abbey closer. "We'll sleep in one bunch.  It'll help.  Staying with your tribemates while sleeping close was a good way to ward off bad dreams.  There was just one problem. 

"Not a baby," said Abbey deadpan. 

"You don't know that," said Saulo.

"Yea, how old are you?" asked Adhara.  Abbey looked over at them and then shrugged.

"Fifteen," she said. The three squealed.

"You are the baby," said Adhara with a laugh.

"Then that settles it.  We'll sleep all together tonight," said Gemma, pushing her way to set her head on Abbey's lap.  The others soon followed, until they were all balled up.  Abbey told herself that the reason her face was turning a darker blue and cooling down was because of all the bodies piled on her and the embarrassment of being called a baby.

Tears gathered at the side of her eyes and Abbey wiped at her eyes.  It was just a silly dream.  They weren't going to massacre her... the yeti tribe at the top of the mountain.  Maybe it wouldn't be perfect, the warriors wouldn't just bow down and give up.  But Abominable's tribe had captured a good amount of the warriors who were whole and passed their trials, they could capture the young and disfigured. 

Gemma made shushing noises, and even as stubborn tears trailed down her cheeks she could herself falling asleep.

 


	18. Old Ties

The next day Abbey spent trying to get her new schedule down and get used to her new tribe.  In many ways the yeti tribe was more like the humans than yetis.  They had adapted so many human customs and they were interested in adapting more into their tribe.  Many of the herdsmen came to her and asked to have their hair done, Abbey promised nothing, saying that while she had some experience with Indu, yeti heads were much bigger than Indu had been.  The other yetis watched in rapt attention.

Yet, it wasn't like the yetis acted like humans.  They were still yetis.  For one thing, they were all interested in learning new hairstyles, not just the females.  For another thing, everything was pooled.  All essentials were shared within the tribe, and all the money made from the humans was entrusted to Abominable and the yetis he had assigned to oversee it without any squabbling from others in the tribe.  With humans there was this exchanging of money to make sure everyone was doing their part. 

Still, it was very strange, working with Abominable's tribe Abbey felt like she was learning all new rules.  They weren't acting like humans but they weren't like Abbey's old tribe yet, even their dynamic was different and their goals.  With the tribe on the mountain it had been all about the hunt, all about the honor in battle, and while Abominable's tribe trained, all of them, like the humans there was only a select few who really concentrated on learning to fight.  Abbey was supposed to meet with them two days from then.

At dyeing Abbey ended up with her skin a funny dark purplish color, and afterwards she was given a canvas to paint on again.  But it all was very strange.  Abbey was adjusting to being one of the smallest person in the tribe again. She also had the rules to her new job.  For herding there was a chance that she might just become a protector, or just a weaver.  And learning her dying job was odd, especially knowing that one day she would probably be learning to weave instead of dye, but the old yeti and everyone else insisted that she had to card wool, dye, spin, before she started to weave.

It was nice that she didn't have to learn to make brushes, paints, and the canvas before painting. 

She was sitting with the other small yetis that night when Abominable asked her if she wanted to see some of her former tribesmen that had been deemed safe enough to wander around.  Abbey had shrugged, and he had asked if any of them used to be her direct family.  Abbey hadn't answered, but apparently that or her expression had given her away and it wasn't long before Abominable and the other small yetis had dragged out of her the name of her younger sister and her trainer.  They didn't promise her anything, but Abbey wasn't sure she wanted them to.

Why couldn't everyone treat her former tribesmen as yetis she'd never been a part of?  She had been caste from that tribe, she shared nothing with them.  It wasn't the yetis from the top of the mountain she relied on for community, and it wasn't the tribe that held the elders she remembered. 

Not yet at least. Abbey still didn't understand what they were going to do with the yetis they had captured.  They didn't want to kill them, but what were they going to do?  They didn't expect her tribe to one day to become a part of their tribe did they?  That would never happen.  The only reason Abbey was a part of their tribe was because well...

"Hey Abbey, Abominable's here for you," said Gemma, tapping Abbey and then pointing toward the slit in the tent.  Abbey turned and looked over  from wrapping her shoes on.  Abbey had adapted, for a time, the clothes of the herdsmen.  For most it was a tunic with tall wrap boots, and some kind of hairdo.  Abbey had taken to also wearing leggings they only wore during something Abbey couldn't quite remember with everything new she has to learn.  She found after such a long time with humans that not wearing pants was weird, plus leaving her legs exposed seemed very risky, even if all she did all day was watch the yaks and dye their wool.

Abominable gave her a firm pat on the back as she exited the tent. "I want you to meet someone."

"Oh, who?" asked Abbey, she'd been talking more lately.  Her voice was almost normal, and Abbey was almost surprised to find that she hadn't adopted at least some of the human's accent.  Instead she continued to sound distinctly yeti. 

"Your uncle, Frostovitch has been moved with his son to a nearby cave," said Abominable.  Abbey looked at him in surprise.

"But how do you know..?" Abbey found her voice getting caught in her throat.  She blamed it on her still healing vocal cords. 

"No, he doesn't have brittle bones like his father, but he has sown to become a part of our tribe and will be going through the ceremony tonight along with his father.  Right now they're getting settled into the cave we found since Frostovich can't live so far down the mountain," said Abominable. "I thought it might be nice for you to meet them before that happened."

"I don't think they want to see me," said Abbey softly.  They were just leaving the village and Abbey found herself wanting to run back.  She needed to help herd the yaks, or dye some wool.

"Actually, Frostovich asked for you specifically," said Abominable.  Abbey stopped for a moment in surprise.  But quickly ran to catch up with Abominable.  They walked in silence for some time.

Abbey wondered what would happen.  Would she remember who they were?  Yes, the tribe was one, but that didn't mean Abbey knew every yeti or met them.  For one thing, she had only been a trainee before she was cast out.  She knew yetis she had trained with, masters, and her parents.  So she knew quite a few yetis, but every single one.  So she knew Frostovich, a little, in the way that she had heard about him because he had never been able to fight and seen as completely useless.  Because he could have been asset like the small yetis, not a very important one, but he could have enhanced the weather.  The thing was, Frostovich's family was known for what was called hairy yetis.  Yetis that were extraordinarily strong, but with weaker connection and control over the cold.  But Frostovich had weak bones, and thus was useless.  He was even useless to Abominable's tribe, and yet... Abominable had no problem bringing him in.

There was so much Abbey just didn't understand about Abominable and his tribe.

"Gana!" shouted a voice. Frostovich's son came running to her.  He was a hairy yeti who was a bit short and a bit off.  He seemed more interested in tailoring then fighting. "Sorry, I mean Abbey."

"Hey," said Abbey awkwardly, wiggling out of his grip.

"Leave her alone Lichtenstein," said a deep growling voice, alone actually said in sign language instead of talking out loud.  Abbey looked around her uncle.  She had missed the discordant way her tribe spook, maybe that was what she had been missing. 

It was something so simple, but living so high up the mountain, even this high, meant there was less air for individuals and speaking verbally was minimized.  But Abominable's tribe lived just far enough down that they didn't have to develop sign language, and while their accents tended to mimic the Abbey's, there were very few like these two.  There was a way some yetis spoke that made their words almost impossible to understand.  I was a form of growling mixed and guttural noises instead of thick careful words. 

"How are you little one?" asked Frostovich.  He stopped a good yard from Abbey and leaned over on a staff.  His smile was soft and Abbey found that instead of acting rationally and doing what Abominable probably wanted her to do, she was a little tongue tied and even her fingers seemed to have forgotten even the simplest of signs. "Are you alright Gana?"

"Abbey, " said Abbey firmly.  They looked at her in surprise, and the Frostovich smiled.

"Alright, Abbey, it makes sense you would choose a new name after you were caste out.  Why don't you come into our cave?" asked Frostovich.  Abbey looked back, but Abominable was already heading away. So she followed them into the cave.

"Are you really okay with this?" asked Abbey almost as soon as she got into the cave. The two yetis looked over at her. "Your tribe is gone, and I helped destroy it.  How could you join us?"

The two looked at her for a second before Frostovich sighed.

"After you were banished, everything fell apart," said Frostovich.  Abbey felt her body tensed and shivered.  It wasn't her fault.  She had been banished because she was weak and they couldn't have weak yetis in the tribe.  Her being thrown out shouldn't have broken anything. "Many thought that we had disrespected what the ancestors were trying to tell us through you."

Abbey shook her head, not understanding what he meant.

"Small yetis are a sign of change.  By rejecting the fact you came back without an enemy head was foolish," said Frostovich.

"And my grandfather is a--was a elder.  They knew from past correspondence that most yeti tribes had made treaties with the humans," said Lichtenstein.  he looked down sadly for a moment. "We were so caught up in our pride and grief that we couldn't change, not even when the ancestors showed us through you that we must change our ways in order to survive.  The internal struggle split the tribe and in the end the elders acted on their traditional hatred of the humans and set out to exterminate them on the side of the mountain they felt they could be effective in, assuming these humans would not be properly trained to kill yetis and too proud to call on their yeti allies."

"But I didn't say anything.  I was a coward.  I couldn't..." Abbey became chocked up and she found her hands clenching hard into fists. 

"Did you run from the fight?  Did the human overwhelm you?" asked Frostovich.

Abbey shook her head. "I had him under me, his neck under my blade, and I couldn't make that last..."

"Exactly," said Lichtenstein.  Abbey looked up at him in confusion. "Most tribes survived while we failed for a reason. When we still had brief correspondence with other tribes when the elders weren't so stuck on themselves.  But most knew long before ours that the smallest were the ones most connected to the ancestors."

Once again Abbey found herself shaking her head.  Frostovich sighed.  Lichtenstein gave her a drink and she smiled.  She never heard the ancestors, well, not really.  Like any yeti she would pray to them, and they would fill her with knowledge she needed and sometimes the whispers echoed in her mind holding their voices.  But she didn't speak to them, and she certainly hadn't gotten their approval when she hadn't been able to kill Karuna. 

The old yeti sighed. "You met the smaller yetis of Abominable's tribe right?" asked Lichtenstein, coming to sit next to his father. "They probably hold an important place in the tribe?  Are probably the spiritual leaders?"

"They control the weather and..." as Abbey thought about it.  In the evening, it was one of the three that would close their eyes and promise to ask the ancestors.  Abbey hadn't thought any of it, because when she asked some questions she would get giggles and they would start asking her if she was positive she didn't want to join them.

"They are the tribe's spiritual center," said Lichtenstein with a sure nod. "That is what you should have been.  We shouldn't have treated you like every other yeti, we should have looked to you for guidance."

"But I'm young.  I don't know anything," said Abbey.

"And yet since we didn't ask what happened and threw you out of our tribe, our tribe is no more the only ones alive are the old, young, and broken.  All our warriors are dead basically.  The pride of our tribe.  The way our tribe survived is gone forever," said Frostovich.

"But the humans stole our land, stole our food, and killed our people," said Abbey, and then bit her lip, because they weren't her people. She took a deep breath in and let out a slow, even breath. "How could you forgive them for all the things they've done.  They were the aggressors.  If they had just stayed down the mountain, we could have lived in peace."

"And yet you are a part of a tribe that supports humans.  I know they have a treaty with them.  Everyone knew," said Frostovich.

"Because-" her voice lost its power and she ran her thumb under her chin. "I owed Karuna my life.  I owed a human my life and the rules are very clear on what the honorable thing to do was."

"A human?" asked Lichtenstein looking shocked. Abbey braced herself.  She had done the right thing.  She had not been at war with the enemy, and she hadn't meant to protect all of them, it had just worked out that way.  She had to protect the human army and fight with them in order to save Karuna who had been an idiot and joined the battle.

Instead both yetis started chuckling.  Not necessarily a happy one.  Frostovich had a mean look crinkling his face and eyes, and Lichtenstein looked like he was about to cry.

"If anything proves," Lichtenstein said, his laughter becoming hiccups even as adrenaline had Abbey standing and backing up, shaking her head, her hair bouncing back and around.

"No," she said with an angry sign. "I know nothing.  I did something... I had reason... I... I'm a traitor.  I killed my father and I don't deserve..."

Abbey ran.  She wasn't sure where she was heading, her feet just tried to outrun her thoughts.  How could they just accept Abominable's tribe?  Abominable had sent his yetis against them in defense of the humans.  His yetis had massacred his tribe and then imprisoned the rest, threatening to keep them locked up until they agreed to join his tribe. 

It was barbaric and cruel.  They were asking them to turn their backs on everything they believed in.  How would the children feel when they grew up and realized exactly what they had done?  That they had turned their backs on their families and their tribe to join the tribe that destroyed where they came from and what they meant?  What if they didn't care? 

Abbey broke into a tent.  The air inside let out one last spin of cold and snow that clung to her body.  Abbey's heart was pounding in her chest.  And her roommates had all turned toward her, their sleepy eyes slowly brightening as the recognized her. 

"Abbey, are you alright?" asked Gemma.  None of them moved to stand and Abbey took a moment to look around her.  She had thought her feet would lead her up the mountain.  Maybe take her to that spot where mountain giants liked to hang out or even the pond.  Instead she was in the middle of Abominable's tribe, in the tent with the small yetis.  The air was filled with slowly descending snowflakes.  The floor had carved into the ice simple symbols that had been found where the elders in the yetis at the top of the mountains kept council. 

Abbey drew back but stopped herself.  There had to be a reason she had run here instead of into isolation.

"I need to meditate with you," Abbey found herself saying.  The three small yetis smiled and Adhara and Saulo scooted and held their hands towards her.  Abbey went and sat with them.  They all kept their eyes closed and took in slow even breaths.  Slowly Abbey felt herself calming and joining the other three as the snow forming in the air around them swirled faster and faster, hitting their ears until it roared.  Slowly, Abbey found herself falling deeper in herself but also connecting more with the influences around her. 

In her she felt the presence of those long past.  Their voices ringing in her head and wrapping her up in a tight hold.  They spoke of how excited they were for her to be here.  To be getting more tribesmen and the ancestors would join them.  Ten it moved through everything, through time and history, a thousand voices speaking as one inside her.

When she opened her eyes, it was because Abominable had entered the tent.  He brought them out and to a tent where Frostovich was being supported by with his son.  The ceremony was short, but Abbey felt with everyone else when the vague presence of another tribe's ancestors echoed through the tribe. 

Abbey felt herself choking and hardly noticing what happened through the rest of the day as they ate and then went to bathe.  She promised herself she would never see them again.  That was the only thing she could do.  Right?

But the ancestors.  They were there. So close, but what did they actually think about her?  Abbey choked back her emotions.  This made sense.  It was straight forward really.  Yes, she had been thrown from her tribe and the ancestors had thus been lost.  But she had been adopted into Abominable's tribe and had ancestors.  Then Abominable had decided to not bring in the yetis from her tribe who promised to dedicate themselves to the tribe, but to do it without making them reject their tribe.  So, that combined the tribe.

Right?

So, yes, Abbey had been abandoned by her trine.  But in an odd sort of twist things had turned in her favor and she got them back.  And she got them because she had helped convince the humans to call the yetis to fight her old tribe.  She was here now because she had killed her father.

No, that wasn't the right way to think about it. 

He hadn't been her father.  Except her old tribe was being adopted into her current tribe.  So, what did that make the yeti she had killed to save the human commander?  Nothing.  He had been the enemy.  That had to be how Abominable were thinking about it.  Yes, they were adopting the members of the yetis from the top of the mountain, but they were could only do it because they had defeated and killed most of the tribe. 

It was simple.  Straight forward.  Abbey had acted honorable and done what she had to do according to tradition.  She hadn't done anything wrong.

But, if she hadn't, why did she feel so dead?

The three small yetis tried to talk to her before she went to bed.  They wanted to know if she had come to her senses and were going to join them in the circle.  She never directly answered.  Indicating that at least for the moment she wanted to spend some time getting to know the tribe by doing the jobs she had. 

They went to bed in one large circle.

Abbey was small again, back when she still needed to see her parents every once in a while to stay healthy and strong.  Somehow her little sister was there, just a year or two younger than her, smiling and bouncing around so that Abbey was never able to get look at her even as they chased her around.  The small yeti laughed as her mother picked her up and touched her nose playfully, calling her a wonderful warrior and that she would grow to do great deeds of strength.

Her father then took her and held him against her.  Abbey smiled laughed and clung to him even as her sister tried to jump up to her.  He eventually put her on the ground and Abbey pouted at him until her sister jumped onto her and they were playing chase again.

Then something caught her eyes.  Off to one corner a small human boy was crying.  Abbey started toward him, but her father caught her.  He shook his head.

"He killed your brother," he said and directed Abbey back toward the game.  Abbey played for some time, but the crying human never lost her mind.  Finally, when they got ready to picnic as a family, Abbey found a moment to look at the human.  She snuck away.  She wouldn't go far, and she wouldn't get close enough to touch him, but she just wanted to see what he was like what he looked like. 

She inched forward, and step by step she got taller and so did he, until she came to him she had Bonebreaker at her side and a spear in hand.  The boy was still crying, but now she knew he was Karuna.  Poor, defenseless Karuna who probably would have trouble killing the gentles of animals, forget about taking on a yak. 

Abbey reached toward him, wanting to cheer him up, tell him it would be okay and she would speak to her family in his behalf.

"Gana?" her mother's voice sounded a little panicked, and Abbey turned to tell her that everything would be alright, when something hot grabbed her back.  Abbey tried to scream but her mouth closed tight shut and she found herself falling on her hands that burned and bled as they touched the hot rock that Karuna had been sitting on. 

Abbey could still hear her mother calling her old name, but she couldn't respond to it.  The hot feeling spread through her body until Karuna and her were face to face.  Tear tracks and fear still painted own his face.  His expression changed slowly to that soft smile he often gave Abbey when they were together and he had shown her something like the Himalayan Yak Band.  He kissed her next, a soft warm peck that caught Abbey off guard and then the rest of his body melted into her.

"Gana," said Abbey's father, close to her ear as he bent down to touch her shoulder.  Abbey felt her body move.  She did not move it, but nevertheless her arm drove her spear deep into her father's body as her other hand reached to grasp the handle of Bonebreaker and then slice it across his neck and decapitate him.  His cold blue blood hit her body, the cold burning against her now warm body. 

Her mother screamed and her sister was running to her.  Abbey's legs started to run forward, her body getting into position to quickly slice across her sister.  She tried to yell out for her sister to get somewhere safe.  But her mouth was sealed shut and in moments the body of her sister laid made a blue stain on the ground and her mother fell an instance later.  The female warrior hadn't even tried to protect herself, she just stared at Abbey with wide, sad eyes, tears falling down her face and her body falling hard on the ground.

Abbey looked over the mess, the cold blood of her family staining her body and burning cold against her skin.

"You did the right thing," said Frostovich from behind her.  Abbey turned to him, disgust and horror slowly twisting in her guts and making her body shake.  She shook her head, her mouth now free, but no words for her to explain just how wrong Frostovich was.

"Abbey, your just like us now," said Indu.  Abbey felt herself tense and turned toward the human.  The human stood next to a vanity mirror and Abbey felt her eyes slip to the glassy reflection that threw back a her the image of a girl that structurally looked at her, but had normal brown eyes, skin like farm soil mixed in cream and hair as dark as the night sky.  She was human.  The most yeti thing about her being the blood scattered across her skin.

Abbey woke up screaming.  The three small yetis helped calm her down.  Gemma telling her in a no-nonsense way that they were talking about this one in the morning. 

Abbey didn't sleep that night, listening to the singing and forcing herself to stay awake. 

 


	19. Echoes of the Past

The next day Abominable walked into their tent and started laughing hysterically.  He had found them in a pile with Saulo forcing Abbey's mouth open, as if by opening Abbey's mouth the three would be able to make her spill what her reoccurring nightmares was about.  Abbey told them it wasn't bad and they weren't all the same.  And they weren't.  The night before was the first time she'd dreamed she was human. 

Thankfully she had made it out of the tent with Abominable, and he had sent her on his way since he needed to have a private conversation with the three.  Abbey had gone to do her job, jumping on one foot as she wrapped her shoes on.

She spent the day with the distempered, smelly yaks and rolled some yetis hair into fun, odd looking shapes.  The hair thing before would have seemed like a waste to Abbey, but these days, especially when tending to the yaks, it almost felt like the time was best spent doing hair.  It helped keep the time from dragging, but wasn't so distracting that they weren't aware of yaks or any potential dangers.  Actually, Abbey found herself useful once again and killed a mountain lion that stalked to close to the yaks.

The yetis seemed impressed, remarking on how skilled Abbey had to be to down a lion when so small and with only a herding staff at her side. Abbey took it with a smile.  Even if her old tribe had expected her to fight at the same level as the rest of the tribe, but that didn't mean they wouldn't say things like she was doing well in training despite her size. 

When she got to dying she had forgotten about the night before, but she was seriously considering what Frostovich and his son had told her.  Was it really true that along with having a deeper connection with the cold also had a deeper one with the ancestors.  She wouldn't have thought so.  She had always believed the yetis with deeper to the ancestors would be the ones fall into madness and death, but Abbey had done extraordinarily well considering the circumstances.  She had been able to survive in the hot summer with no one by her side, and then survive the rest of the year by latching on and taking collective energy of from the humans instead of from a yeti tribe.

But humans didn't have ancestors.  They had something close in things they called Gods, but none of the humans, at least as a whole seemed to have any faith in them, or they didn't exist.  The small yetis had sometimes dropped hints that it was impressive Abbey hadn't wasted away by fall.  So maybe Abbey was different then most small yetis.  Maybe instead of being more connected to the ancestors, she was naturally more removed from them.

But that didn't explain the other day when she had followed the other three to join with the ancestors.  Maybe her rightful place was with them.  It would mean sacrificing all she had ever learned and been.  Even with the humans she had been the protector.  She had strapped a spear and once in a while even their stupid guns on her back and looked out for any attacks.  If she stopped herding and dyeing and draw images on her arms like the others.  But they were weak.  They were catered to and looked down on.  Maybe they served an important function for the tribe, but it was something so alien and they seemed so weak doing it that they were treated and talked about as if they were lesser in some ways, pitied for their height and all they missed out doing.

Abbey took the paint from Berg and started painting.   She still didn't like painting as much as drawing.  When she drew it was for a specific reason, and she drew something meaningful.  Sometimes she played around making her friends into yetis, but for the most part she drew to communicate and capture the truth in what she saw.  In painting she instinctively didn't even try to make anything specific.  Instead her brush seemed to have a mind of its own and just needed her hand to support it. 

A dark maroon splashed across the canvas.  Then there was a neon orange.  An orange gold.  The colors touched and played together, and soon Abbey found the vague images of a circle dancing in a circle, holding hands and playing a game Abbey had seen the human children playing in the village, but despite the hot colors, Abbey was sure these were yeti children.  Like the ones in the village that returned to their parents every day. 

This village was so strange.  Sure, until Abbey was about six she had seen her parents at least once a week, but the objective was to have the village raise the children, not the parents.  Here children who didn't even have to see their parents anymore still went home to them.  The practice often going so long until they settled down to have a family where they would pick a place to stay. 

Abbey sighed and drew away.  The painting wasn't done, but the color and detail she wanted to add wouldn't be possible until after the coat she had already done would dry. 

When she looked around she realized that Berg, the old yeti Rosemary, and at least a dozen of the weaving yetis were watching her with wide eyes. Abbey turned and unconsciously straightened her shoulder and folded her hands in her lap. 

"Can I help?" she asked, titling her head to the side and smiling. 

"If your paintings sell well on Friday then some of the yetis weaving will be joining you making paintings.  If they continue to sell well, we may even have to make a new division," said Rosemary with a crackling voice. "Let's go yetis.  It's almost dinner.  We can ask Abbey questions about painting and technique tomorrow."

"There is no technique in this," said Abbey dryly with a roll of her eyes.  The old yeti rolled her eyes, and most yetis left with her.  Only Berg stayed with one other yeti, a young female with pinkish white hair and big hands. They got everything cleaned up and went to join the rest for dinner. 

"Hey Abbey," said Saulo as he dug into the frozen yak meat.

"Abominable wants us to meet with a kid a couple of kids and some elderly yeti he thinks will be the next to be welcomed into the tribe," said Gemma.

Abbey found her appetite draining away, but she forced herself to eat.  There was no reason for her not to eat.  She needed to keep her energy up, and it would do no one any good if she was weak because she let herself dwell on pointless issues. 

"How could I help?  Wouldn't I just discourage them?" asked Abbey.

"I think he's hoping you'll be the voice of reason, and also be able to tell us if the person is faking," said Gemma, then she shrugged. "We plan on at least some idiot getting to the ritual and then the ancestors rejecting them because they have evil intents toward us.  From the folktales, we don't think the reaction to that will be any good for that yeti.  We don't want to kill or hurt them anymore than we already have."

"Right, they are to be fellow tribesmen," said Abbey softly. "Where are we meeting?"

"We'll stay together," said Adhara. "Now, about electricity.  How does it work."

Abominable led them, and a couple of other yetis, these ones all with weapons and the look of proper warriors.  When they came in, it was a lot different than it was for Frostovich and his son.  It was clear Abominable's tribe didn't trust them at all.  These yetis, small and big alike were restrained with manacles and surrounded by warriors. 

The kids sat together, all of them looking petulant, and the youngest holding back angry tears and beating his fist for the oldest yeti to come to him and hold him.  Still, even though Abbey hadn't been warned ahead of time, she was drawn by the deepest call of close blood and ancestry to a girl perhaps five years old. 

The little yeti looked over at Abbey and she stood, though the manacle stopped her from going far.  Abbey walked over to her sister and sat down in front of her.

The little girl pointed at Abbey. "Gana."

"Abbey, but people from your tribe will probably call me Gana," said Abbey, she had to crouch a little to be at her sister's level.

"She's Gana girl," said the old yeti sharply.  Abbey looked up at the old yeti, but didn't react to the female's reserved look.

"I bare the marks of yeti banished, but I am now part of Abominable's tribe," Abbey corrected before looking down at her sister.  The little yeti looked back with a pout in some confusion.  "You're thinking of becoming a part of Abominable's tribe?"

"No," said the little girl. "I just want to see my daddy, and he said it was best to do what you showed us to do."

"He did?" asked Abbey.  She remember him holding her, restraining her as she was cut.

"He also said bonebreaker was yours and got mad when mom said you never existed," said the little girl.  Abbey looked down at her sister in shock.  Even only seeing her parents once a week had clued her into this much conflict her parents were having over her banishment.  Why had her parents been talking about it?  She shouldn't have existed to them.  They certainly shouldn't have been talking about her.

"Did you really want us to become friends with the enemy?  Where is daddy?" asked the little yeti. "Who do I fight when I get older if I'm friends with the enemy?"

"You don't fight anyone," said Abbey. "And I'm not your sister.  I killed your father."

Abbey rolled away fast enough to miss the immediate attack by the little yeti.  The little girl screamed and shouted but Abbey turned away and headed out of the tent.  She wasn't running this time, there was just nothing else to say.  She had told the little girl what was important, and nothing else mattered.  Abbey wasn't her sister, not anymore, not even if the little yeti joined Abominable's tribe.  They were not her tribe. 

Abbey felt a headache brewing and sat down in her tent to meditate.  her mind refused to stop churning.

What was her purpose now?  She needed to stop just believing in what she was told was honorable, because it wasn't.  If Abbey knew anything after looking in that little yetis eyes is that Abbey had no right to kill her father.  There wasn't a simple answer to this.  Abbey just  had to accept that when given a choice between two great evils, she had chosen one of the other.  She had chosen to sacrifice her family, for the friends and community she had become a part of.  It wouldn't have been right to stay out of the fight, but Abbey hadn't done the right, the good thing by joining it and killing yetis she had grown up with.  Forget that they had caste her out, she had still been living with their ideals and they had still been the ones who raised her. 

So what did that mean now?  Did she just accept that she was now a part of the tribe, and avoid the yetis from the tribe on top of the mountain?  No, they would be part of the tribe, and she was part of the tribe.  She couldn't avoid them on purpose.  Abbey sighed, cushioning her head in her hands.  Where did she belong?

When the three small yetis returned from the tent Abbey was already fighting off the vision of nightmares besieging her mind.  This time no one demanded she tell them what her nightmares were, and in the morning she returned to work and in the evening going to bath and bed alone.  This continued until one night Abbey simply didn't go back to the tent and walked a ways to the pond at the end of where the yaks grazed during the day.

Over the last few days she had learned so little of her goals and how she understood herself or how she could stay in the village. Some days she just wanted to return to the human village.  When she closed her eyes and thought of home, she didn't see Abominable and this village, or the three yetis and their tent.  She didn't even see her old village where she had grown up and trained. 

No, for her home was with the humans.  In the stifling burning house Kshama and Indu lived in, with all of them eating steaming food.  Karuna chatting without real meaning or point.  Lakshya holding out his cup to be iced despite that it was still chilly outside and his body needed to generate heat after a night of standing as a lookout for the village.  Indu would debate with Kshama over medicine and only pay attention to Abbey if the yeti agreed to put on makeup and gossip with her after dinner and Karuna would call her a girly-girl.

That was her picture of home now, not with any yetis, and it was ridiculous.  Humans were so different from everything she knew and was.  They had no ancestors to toward to know what was right and best for everyone as a whole.  They were warm but lived somewhere that even in the summer it would snow.  They had no connections to the elements.  They didn't need to be in groups to survive.  And yet, they were a village.  Despite that they needed something called money to distribute goods and were constantly fighting.  They somehow made it work.

And Abbey knew who she was there.  She was Karuna's protector.  She was the only yeti in the village and she was a protector as well as an outcaste with the rest of her human friends.

Here, there was just so much uncertainly.  She didn't know where se fit in anymore.  She didn't know what was honorable, because when she really thought about it, she had been picking the rules as to what was going on all along.  When she said she acted honorable, she blocked out all the ways she wasn't being honorable.  No, she remembered, at least in the beginning telling herself that what she was doing was the most honorable in the situation.  But was it really?  Had her actions truly been honorable?

Killing her father, wasn't honorable, and Abbey now was starting to believe that killing Karuna wouldn't have been honorable either.  Abbey realized that to her, acting honorably was following the rules.  But was following the rules honorable?  Or was there more to being honorable then following the rules. 

"Good morning Abbey," said Abominable.  Abbey felt her body go completely stiff and she turned toward the big yeti leader.  He came and clumsily sat next to her. "You worried us."

"You weren't looking for me this whole time?" asked Abbey softly, her hands clenching tightly in her lap. 

"No, I convinced them that you needed your space," said Abominable, he gave Abbey a soft smile and Abbey forced herself to give him one back.  He looked at her seriously, his heavy eyes seeming to look past her fake smile and to her soul. "You want to go back to the humans don't you?"

Abbey looked up at him in shock.  How had he known.

"It's not hard to tell.  Even Gemma said something about it, and she's all about the tribe and having you join them in communication with the ancestors," said Abominable. 

"I don't..."  Abbey continued to stare at him in confusion.

"You are unhappy here.  You have a tribe, but you have no one to care about here.  not really, and your tribe being here imprisoned is driving you mad," said Abominable.  Abbey looked away from him in shame, drawing her legs toward her chest. "Abbey, I need you to do something."

Abbey looked up at him, unsure what she could after time after time she seemed to let down her tribe.

"I need you to follow Karuna and be my ambassador to all beings, human and monster, not part of the yeti culture," said Abominable. 

"What?" asked Abbey, her eyebrows drawing together as she drew her knees to her chest. Abominable smiled.

"After everything you have been through, maybe it's hard to see where you really excel," said Abominable with a deep chuckle. "But you have done something that no yeti has yet achieved.  You have become a part of the humans tribe."

"You made a treaty," Abbey pointed out.  The old yeti laughed and shook his head.

"The treaty I have made and all other remaining yeti tribes have made are weak and based on trade and boundaries.  We don't have a true working relationship and the humans have us at a definite disadvantage.  If they choose to kill us, who would care, who would stand up for us if the humans broke their treaty?" said Abominable with a sigh. "But you made a tie with them.  You made us more relatable to them.  You lived with them.  Ate with them.  They even allowed you to love one of them."

"I don't love him," Abbey said with a roll of her eyes.

"Abbey, we need someone to be our ambassador.  The important thing is that they accept you despite the fact you weren't just a yeti, but also a tribe that had killed humans for the last hundred years.  You are what we need to connect with the outside world and gain allies," said Abominable, his big hands covering her shoulders.

"But I would just go to the village," said Abbey.

"Not if you followed that boy.  Karuna has always been a smart human, and from what I heard, you're a very bright yeti," said Abominable. "His village is sending him overseas to learn more and further his studies.  We know since they found that near one of the colleges they were looking at, and the one I think he is going to they found a monster school they were interested in sending him to because he could learn to work with monsters, and if he ended up coming back to the village he would be able to work well with us."

There was a moment of silence. "You used too many words.  I don't think I understand," said Abbey slowly, trying to wrap her brain around what Abominable was trying to tell her.  The leader sighed again, but he continued to smile.

"I wish you to go with Karuna and enroll in a monster high school close to his college so you can start making connection to other monsters from the most integrated country in the world," said Abominable.  Abbey looked up at him in shock.

"You want to send me away?" she said slowly. The practice the humans had that made her the most uncomfortable with, and Abominable wanted to do it with her.

"Are you happy here Abbey?" asked Abominable.  Abbey felt herself scrunch up to defend herself, but in his eyes she could see he didn't mean it accusingly or cruelly.  She shook her head. "I'm not just throwing you away Abbey.  I'm telling you about the most important job I can think for you.  Abbey you are a strong yeti, the only one I know who can survive on the support of those around her despite the fact that aren't yetis.  I want to send you away because I need someone to make friends with the monsters of the world and encourage the creation of allies.  You are the only one I can trust this with, and I think it will be good for you too."

"How?" asked Abbey. "How could leaving something I just got back that I need be good for me?"

"Because what you needed was a tribe, but what you need to be happy is to be with your friends and as far away from the yetis who caste you out," said Abominable. "We're not going to kill your tribesmen, that wouldn't do any good, not even to you.  But it's clear that by being so close to them, it's only hurting you.  The three yetis say you have been having increasingly bad nightmares despite their presence."

"So its best for you if I leave.  You can forget about me," said Abbey bitterly, looking away from him and letting his chin rest in her hands. 

"No, I need you to leave because we the support of monsters throughout the world, and I want you to be happy," said Abominable.  Abbey frowns.  Maybe she is a part of his tribe now, but she is a very recent member.  He hardly knows her at all, and letting her go isn't like asking any of his other charges that he has known for years and probably knew their parents and grandparents behind them.  They are truly family and she is...

But he's that to Abbey.  Abbey is just trying to fill the void by agreeing to this.  She needed ancestors, she needed a tribe, and Abominable was available.

"I'll be with Karuna?" asked Abbey slowly.

"And if you follow him somewhere else, or even stay in the human village, you will still be doing us a great boon," said Abominable.

Abbey closed her eyes.  Some part of her rebelled at the idea, but no, Abominable was right.  She wasn't happy and her home was with the humans. Maybe it hurt that he was sending her away.  That she meant less than the people of her tribe that were being forced to go against everything they were taught. 

"Alright," she said with a sigh.

"You will always be welcomed back here Abbey.  If you need to come and visit, we will find a way," said Abominable.  Abbey nodded and then took in a deep breath.

"I understand.," said Abbey, forcing herself to sound firm and sure. Abominable sighed but stood.

"You should get ready.  We leave at sunrise," said Abominable. 

It didn't take long for the sun to start showing.  Abbey didn't know if she wanted to go to the caravan.  Technically she was heading backwards if she went to walk with the rest of the caravan.  But in the end.  She didn't want to lose the connection to the ancestors this tribe gave her, and if she was to leave the tribe to only live in close proximity to strange monsters, then she would need the ancestors report.

Abbey shook her head.  She was a yeti.  Maybe she didn't understand truly what it meant to be honorable, but she was sick of being unsure all the time.  Now it was time to be the yeti she always wanted to be. 

Yes, that was what Indu and Karuna had always been going on about.  They always talked about being true to themselves.  Indu talked about her apprenticeship of being a healer.  Karuna when he explained his studies.  They both seemed so torn, and Abbey hadn't understood.  Why didn't they just accept the roles their tribe had given to them?  But then she met Lakshya, and maybe she had seen Lakshya, seen his weakness, seen that he made a horrid soldier, and realized why humans worried about being who they wanted to be even if they already had one chosen for them. 

Humans had so many jobs that had equal weight in their society.  They had so many choices, unlike yetis, and yet, despite this, unlike Abominable who had developed a system for finding what might make every yeti happy and use their skills to their full potential, instead humans would choose a random thing that either they were good at--Karuna's being studies, or just being pushed to being something based on their family-hence Lakshya's job. 

But humans still found ways to express themselves.  Lakshya tended to loudly and with little thought complain about his situation, and though Abbey hadn't seen it personally, he apparently was a horrible flirt.  Karuna tended to take classes that interested and made him complain about elders that should just leave him to his studies and pick what classes he wanted to take.  Indu obsessed over her looks, and according to Kshama obsessed too much over gossip she shouldn't be spreading and dressing inappropriately. 

So, going to the humans now, would be the perfect solution.  Abbey would be able to find ways to really be true to herself.  Indu was always interested in getting her to learn more about being a girl, and that was something Abbey liked.  Karuna always wanted to know the books Abbey was interested in and always pushed her to express herself in drawing.  Maybe it was best for her to go, with the humans honor and tribe were not life.  She would be able, and with her friends, encouraged to explore and find her own imagine and meaning of honor.

Maybe no tribe wanted her, but she didn't need a tribe.  She had proven that.  As she came into the village she saw the some of yetis from the tribe loading the caravans.  She felt herself tense, but kept moving forward until she lifted some packs to help them.  None of them stopped her, but it was clear that since they hadn't spent so much time around her, they were unsure about how capable she was.

No, Abbey decided, her place was not with yetis.  it was time to return to Karuna's side, though maybe this time she would follow his wishes and be just his friend. 

 


	20. Going Home

The three small yetis came to the caravans before they left.  None of them cried.  Gemma looked like, what was the human saying, that she had swallowed a lemon, but Adhara and Saulo seemed to be excited and convinced it was the best idea and they gave her something called an icoffin and showed her where their emails were stored.  Abbey vaguely thought she remembered Indu playing around with Karuna's and complaining they didn't really get service so far up the mountain.  She was also sure that Indu had called hers an iphone, but hers looked the same. 

The bigger yetis insisted on putting Abbey in the cart instead of letting her walk along.  They said they didn't care about how capable she was, it was good business to have her there with the wares especially since she helped produce some of them.  The three small yetis waved her off enthusiastically as the carts headed out, promising they would try to visit her in the human village before Abbey left the mountain. 

Abbey waved to them until it became uncomfortable to keep looking in that direction.  or a few minutes she say uncomfortably on the railing of the cart, holding on as she tried to balance as the cart bounced along.  She really would have preferred to walk.  This was very uncomfortable.  Abbey took in a deep breath.  The thing about dealing with Abominable's yetis is they had a very set way of doing things, and the only changes happened when Abominable told them about it and then they scrambled to obey him while also making accommodations and finding ways to make things easier for Abbey. 

It was actually annoying, now that Abbey thought about it.  She was grateful they were thinking about her, but she was annoyed they didn't think she was capable to deal with their world on her own merits.  Maybe she had been spoiled by the humans world a little, but for most of her life she had been expected to keep up with the other yetis.  These yetis were more accommodating, but they were more distant.  When Abominable hadn't said anything against forcing Abbey on the cart, they had practically lifted her there and none of them made any indication that they wanted to get to know her.

Before Abbey could become morose and lost in her thoughts, one of the weavers came and started walking next to her, asking about her painting, which turned into a discussion about art.  Abbey didn't really like discussing her art she decided.  When she had written about it with Karuna, his reactions to her way of thinking had been funny, and she was still discovering her own ability in drawing and would draw more silly things like her human friends as yetis.  Now Abbey thought that it was a bad sort of art to take on.  A dangerous experiment in the unreal that would only harm her.

This yeti, on the other hand, thought of herself as an artist and  talked about wanting to have more freedom when she wove.  Abbey listened with growing concern, as the other yeti described her ideal not as being art as another form of communication and capturing the reality of a situation.  This yeti was more interested in expressing herself, and seemed to really obsess how Abbey caught the essence of the scenes she painted.

When the human village finally came into Abbey, the small yeti felt a sigh of relief escaping her before the yeti continued to try and describe why Abbey's thinking was apparently limiting.  Abbey bit her tongue.  She would soon be at the village, and she would rather not leave the yetis from her current tribe on a bad note.  So she bit her tongue. 

Abominable greeted the humans that came to lead him to the center of the village with his usual ceremony and gave his customary gift to the leader.  The man looked up in surprise when Abominable pointed Abbey out.  Abbey hoped down from the cart, smiling at Lakshya's father since she knew him.  Oddly enough, Abbey had never really met the human leader before.  He wasn't even one of the leaders in the battle a week ago. 

Abominable explained the situation.  The human leader looked a little scandalized when Abominable mentioned he was thinking of sending Abbey to the states as he called them, but he calmed down when Abominable promised they would be sending her with their own money and exchanging goods for her use of their computer lab.

Abbey had to bite back the need to point out that she made money and presumably had some in a bank of some sort.  But that would be undermining Abominable, and he already knew probably.  Better to trust his judgment.  Abbey would probably be expected to save up for other things like her schooling and housing when she got to whatever the states were, and whatever the humans wore there, or the monsters. 

When Abominable started encouraging the other yetis to get out to display their supplies and start the haggling just as humans started bringing up their own wares.  Abominable caught Abbey's attention with a wink and pointed in the direction of Indu's house.  Abbey looked toward Lakshya's father, not ready to join the village if she was going to be attacked.  Instead Lakshya ran into her arms and started to talk a mile a minute.  She heard Abominable's loud chuckle, but Lakshya pulled her way before she could look behind to see if her leader was laughing at her or something else. 

"She's back!" yelled the guard as they entered Kshama's house.  A girl screamed and Lakshya pulled them out again, laughing even as something crashed against the door.  He giggled and pulled Abbey to her old shed.  It was the same as she left it, and Lakshya made a point of shoving the yak stuffed animal in her arms and then hugging her again.

"Miss me?" asked Abbey as she patted his back.  He stiffened and pulled away from her, and then he quickly came closer and looked at her mouth.

"It's true then, I can see the scars," said the guard.  Abbey blushed and carefully pulled herself out of his hug so they could go and sit down.  She wished that she didn't know what he was talking about, but Abbey could never forget the scars she bore or how they had affected her. They were a part of her existence a part of her past.  Maybe it wasn't a nice past, but it didn't need to be. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Sewn shut," said Abbey teasingly.  Lakshya rolled his eyes.

"Abbey," shouted Indu, running in and throwing herself at Abbey and hugging her closely.  Unlike Lakshya, she didn't linger in the hug, and actually pushed away. "Come on, let's get somewhere warm."

When Abbey walked into the healing house.  The girl was absent and Kshama was sitting at her work table and besides mentioning that she expected Abbey to consent to a physical later, she didn't seem overly impressed Abbey was back.

"She's only been gone a week," said the old woman.

"But we didn't know if she was coming back," said Lakshya with a with a sigh.

Abbey smiled and found herself hugging the ridiculous stuffed animal to her chest.  They caught up a bit, and with the rapid fire of questions she got from the two, she was reminded of the three yetis.  Lakshya wanted to know why she was back and if she had been treated well.  Indu was interested in if they had small yetis and if what she was wearing was what all yetis wore.  They asked more questions, and Abbey found herself listening and not trying to really answer.  They were really like the three yetis.  They asked questions so quickly, and while they left moments for Abbey to answer, all Abbey would have to do was open her mouth and they would think of more questions to ask.

The door opened after what felt like only five minutes, but could have been hours.  Abbey turned her head, and the questions became background noise.  In the doorway stood Karuna, bag slung over his shoulder and heavy.  They stared at each other for what felt like days, until suddenly Abbey found her legs and rushed over to draw Karuna into a hug.  She tried to be conscious of the fact he was human but was still afraid that she might be squeezing him too close by the way all the air was pushed from his body.

"I was afraid you'd never come back," whispered Karuna, his hand coming to rest on the back of her head.  He suddenly shivered and laughed even as he pulled out of his hug, though his hand stayed latched onto her clothes.

"This is home," Abbey said with a shrug. 

Karuna looked at her, shock evident in his expression.  He then looked away and then back, a mischievous smile now plastered on his face.

"Why do all yetis have Russian accents?" he asked with a laugh.  Abbey just cocked her head to the side. 

"What is a Russian accent?" asked Abbey.  Karuna rolled his eyes and then picked up his bag.

"Come on Abbey.  They got me some of the things you'll need to start studying to be ready for Monster High," said Karuna, walking over the table and throwing his bag on it.

"What high school?" asked Indu and then she drew in a fast breath. "You're following Karuna to the states?  Did you get thrown out of your tribe again?"

"Are you both going to a monster school?  What is a monster school?" asked Lakshya. 

Kshama's crane crashed on the wall.  Everyone stopped talking and looked in her direction. "One question at a time.  Starting with why you're here girl."

"This is my home," said Abbey again, really humans didn't listen well enough.  Just because there was more air down the mountain didn't mean they should waste it.  But trying to explain that to the three small yetis had been hard enough.  Abbey still remembered when Karuna had acted confused and then laughed when Abbey had tried to explain it to him.  Perhaps the monsters at Monster High would be more understanding, they were all in a school, which according to everyone only intelligent people continued lessons beyond the basic at a young age.

"But are you still part of Abominable's tribe?" asked Karuna, all three humans seemed to be leaning closer to Abbey in interest.

"Yes, I'm going to be an ambassador," said Abbey.  The humans looked shocked and then Karuna started snorting and then laughing, even Lakshya started laughing.  Abbey looked at them in confusion and Indu rolled her eyes and then hit them on the back of their head.

"Seeing as she's here, living with us, I think it'll work," said Indu.

"I think she fit in because she's a good defender," said Lakshya. "I know I thought we were insane not to demand that Abominable not take care of you when you were stalking around the village."

"And we wouldn't take care of her because..." asked Indu, looking at Lakshya incredulously. 

"Because we couldn't find her and even though she's human size she's still a yeti," said Lakshya dryly.

"I'm still with the tribe, but I am home with Karuna and Abominable needs me to go and help make connections with other monsters overseas since I have proved I can thrive by making a family with my friends," said Abbey, hoping to derail the current conversation and get them back on track.  Not that she was being self-centered, it was just that she wanted to get all the questions answered right now with all of them there instead of having to repeat herself over and over again. 

"Why did they choose you?" asked Karuna to which Indu kicked him lightly. 

"Why do you think?" asked Lakshya with a smile.  Abbey looked between them, then thought she might know what they were talking about.

"I am not in love with Karuna," she said.  It was a waste of breath in some ways to point out what Abbey thought should be an obvious fact but it seemed like such a common misconception of what she felt toward a human.  Maybe it was the size thing.  Because Abbey was a yeti and Karuna was a human.  They would work together.

"We know," said Lakshya but Indu just looked at Abbey skeptically. Karuna dramatically put his hand on his head and leaned over on her shoulder.

"Am I not good enough for you?" he demanded sadly.  Abbey pushed at him in irritation. 

"You're human," said Abbey simply, and then because humans were silly. "And talkative."

"So, you're going to marry a big yeti?" asked Indu.

"Doesn't Abominable have small yetis though?  I mean, he talked about them when we told him about Abbey sneaking around," said Lakshya.

"Are there a lot of small yetis?" asked Karuna.  Abbey looked at the three of them and then sighed.  These three reminded her of the three yetis from Abominable's tribe.  Though it would be nice if one of them acted as sensibly as Gemma had seemed.  Instead they were all quirky in their own way.  Maybe Indu could have been like Gemma, but Indu had that whole gossip girly side to her that fascinated Abbey but made the human a little too odd in Abbey's opinion.

Abbey held up three fingers.

"Come on Abbey," said Karuna with an exaggerated sigh. "Your mouth isn't sewed shut anymore, we want to hear your cute Russian accent."

Abbey looked him up and down, and decided that it would be better for Karuna if she didn't continue to help him and she could deal with the humans constant questions.  She was probably going to be asked about everything five times at least.  Even by Karuna.  The human was smart, but he liked clarifying and making hypothesis, and now that Abbey could talk, he would probably be asking a lot of questions.  He'd asked before, but Abbey could only answer in pictures, and he considered it a sensitive topic. 

"Abbey, you alright?" asked Lakshya, appearing about an inch from Abbey's face and making the yeti blink in surprise.

"Fine," said Abbey with a sigh and then she looked over at Indu and smiled. "I found while doing other chores that I like doing hairstyles."

"Really," said Indu and then cackled, kicking Karuna's chair and then grabbing Abbey's wrist.  Abbey checked that her cold really was held under the skin. It wouldn't do to give her friend frost bite, again. 

Indu sat Abbey down at their usual spot, and Abbey started to unwind her hair.  It now reached just to her waist, and she had kept it braided for the most part.  Indu instantly started crooning over it, and while Karuna rolled her eyes and grabbed a book to read, Lakshya sat and watched.  Indu told him to go away.  Abbey commented that didn't have enough hair to do anything with, but he could put on some makeup.  To which the guard went, picked up one of Abbey's books, and started reading to her.  Abbey listened with half an ear.  It was very boring what he read, something about vampires which Abbey knew nothing about and their tension with humans.  There were castles, pitch forks, money, and fire involved. 

Humans and their fire. 

Abbey spent some time primping and glossing over the more pleasant things that had happened in the tribe and glossing over the one she shared blood with.  Abbey eventually did go over and talk to Karuna about what he called her cram course that would get her ready to enroll in a school in the states.  It didn't sound horrible.  Apparently meant she had to memorize a whole lot of random things.  From what Karuna called textbooks and Lakshya and Indu called dry and boring as hell.  Still, that had been the generally consensus to all Karuna's studies by everyone in the village, at least the ones Abbey knew.

Still, the textbooks might be hard to concentrate on, at least with Lakshya reading them, but it was clear that reading them and memorizing them was important to the states and college of high school or whatever.

Abbey went out as they started dinner and basked in the cold air.

At dinner Abbey froze her food and turned everyone's drink to slush.  They all giggled together and Abbey found that this is what she had been waiting for.  The food tasted great.  Maybe it was the hot air trying to melt her and the cold food on her tongue making her insides shiver and freeze.  Kshama said that they were going to have her have a physical the next day, to which Abbey rolled her eyes.

After dinner she found herself wondering if she really did want to study.  In the spirit of her new conviction to be true to herself, she admitted she probably didn't.  Abbey had never been interested in the books Karuna had beyond learning to read and write so she could communicate.  Some of the books Karuna had given her to read were utterly pointless.  Abbey at first thought they were books by a monster called god or angels, or one seemed a story about a sea traveling warrior who encountered monsters and she made it more than halfway through that thing when Karuna told her it was untrue.  Historically important literature but not based on facts.

Abbey had no interest in books that weren't true.  Now more than ever.  She had told this to Karuna when he was going over some of the books he thought she would need to read.  He had replied that there were certain things she had to know, and yes, sometimes it was things that she would probably not understand why she needed to know it.  Abbey sighed and nodded her head, but she hoped that monsters were more practical than humans and didn't require her to read about things that weren't real.

As Abbey settled down and started drawing, she tried to concentrate on drawing the three small yetis.  At first she thought she would do the typical thing, a picture of them together, smiling, but instead she drew them like she found them in that tent.  Calm, holding hands, with the cold of the ancestors swirling all around them. 

"Does it bother you?" asked Indu.  She's sitting in front of Abbey and offering her the cherry flavored lip balm Indu had bought just for her. 

Abbey looked up and raised an eyebrow before using Indu's small mirror to put on the stuff.  She smacked her lips like Indu said to evenly spread the stuff and handed the stuff back. She glances at the mirror briefly.  The lip balm is clear, and she can still see her scars. 

With yetis, it was easy enough to avoid mirrors.  They had them, but not many, and not even the most vein yeti was as obsessed over their  looks the way Indu did.  And Abbey found that she didn't mind as much as she used to.  She had thought it was weak, but even as Abbey snapped the mirror closed and handed it back to Indu.

"I could find some lipstick if you want to cover them up," said Indu.

"What?" asked Abbey.

"Your scars, I mean, if you want to.  You're not really banished anymore, so those marks don't mean anything.  So, I mean, the next time I go down the mountain , I could get you some lipstick," said Indu haltingly.

"Or we could go altogether," said Lakshya.  The guard smiled at Abbey. "You have that regulation thing down right?  You won't get overheated, and you have all that money saved up.  You could get some proper clothes to wear in the states.  'cause I don't think you're uniform or whatever you're wearing right now is going to cut it."

Abbey looked down at her yeti clothes.  They weren't that bad she thought.  They fit better with what Karuna and the other humans were wearing than her old armor.  Well, probably because it wasn't armor. 

"We wouldn't be going until at least a month from now.  To treacherous until it gets a bit warmer," Karuna told Abbey. "We usually follow the first supply run down to the  gondola. We have to stay down there a day or two.  It might be too hot for Abbey."

"She needs to get used to the heat.  Where you two are going it stays hotter longer," said Kshama as she pushed her way forward and then plopped herself down on the chair in front of the fire. "A few days down at the bottom of the mountain late spring will be good for you."

Abbey nodded and picked up her sketchpad from her lap.

"Are those the Gemma, Adhara, and Saulo?" asked Karuna, leaning over to get a better view of the picture.  Abbey bit down a smile.  Sometimes humans dragged out conversations unnecessarily, and sometimes they just made decisions and moved past.  Abbey was what Karuna would probably call being patronizing, but she couldn't help but feel proud when her human friend made a final decision without talking. 

 "Yes," said Abbey with a smile.  Bringing up her pencil to continue her sketch a bit more before she started to color it.

"They really are spiritual leaders aren't they?" asked Karuna.  Abbey nodded. "Why didn't you become one?"

Abbey entertained telling Karuna her winding discovery about why she didn't want to or could become a spiritual leader and then decided she would write it for him if he really wanted the whole story and went for the short version.

"It is hard to be spiritual when I myself am conflicted," said Abbey, and then shrugged. "They are accepting my old tribe into theirs, plus my home is here among humans who don't pray to ancestors."

"I'm sorry," said Indu.  Abbey shrugged, not sure what her friend was sorry for or why the humans now looked so solemn. 

"I'm not. I get what I want and so do they.  I will miss them, but I would miss you more," said Abbey.  The others hugged her and they spent the rest of the night talking about anything that came to mind.  The humans chattered and Abbey spent her night between writing and drawing.  Kshama kept sending her odd looks, but Abbey figured that was because the old woman was still interested in giving her that physical.  Indu even acted even more girly.  It was so odd.  Indu had known Abbey was female for months now, but for some reason she couldn't keep her eyes off Abbey's hair and was giggling and had officially decided that Abbey was on her side in any case. 

When it was reaching ten Lakshya left for his shift.  Abbey smiled and asked if he wanted her along.  He turned her down, and Abbey went to the cabin that was her house.  She curled in on her bed.  Abbey woke up a couple of hours later drenched in sweat with tears freezing on her cheek.  She groped for the feeling of the three yetis to be there but found nowhere.  Abbey felt herself shivering, and they weren't there.

Abbey had hoped that she didn't have nightmares anymore.  Not that she could remember the last one, all her mind supplied her with was the ghost of the fingers of blinding heat and blue and red blood mixing together.  Abbey felt herself flush with heat and quickly stumbled her way out of the cabin and into the orange dawn.  She felt her stomach roil and bubble deep in her gut. 

How much longer would the nightmares continue?  Would it go until she no longer felt guilt, because she didn't think that would ever happen.  Maybe she hadn't known her father well, and maybe he had been one of the yetis that cut and hurt her, but he had still been blood.  She had known him, played warrior with him, heard his stories, and shared life force with her. 

Abbey needed to move forward.  She couldn't dwell on the past, especially the ones that were inevitable, and ones that she hadn't done the wrong thing in.  Protecting Karuna had been honorable.  Siding with the humans and Abominable's tribe had been honorable.  Fighting for fightings sake was vicious and cruel.  Maybe the humans didn't deserve their forgiveness, but they didn't deserve to be slaughtered, and her tribe had been the aggressors, at least in this instance. 

Abbey wiped her mouth and headed to the field.  She would meditate on it until breakfast, and then she would go to Karuna to the science lab to start her studies. 

 


	21. Confused

Getting the core reading and signing up for courses took a while despite the fact that they told her it was urgent she would be joining the class the beginning of the last year. 

Right now Abbey was looking through some of the material the tutor for her classes had given her to start her studies.  Unfortunately until they were able to make it down the mountain, nothing could come up.  So they had given a list of the books Karuna owned, to which only five had the okay, and four had the read it only after she had read the internet sites on the monster side of the events that happened.

She also read some books on human history, but those were books that covered all the "basic" information and were incredibly boring and not overly informative only giving her the barest of facts.

The clock on the computer dinged, a signal Seth had set up to warn them their lessons for the day was coming to an end.  Abbey's hands clenched involuntarily and she had to swallow wave of blood lust.  It wasn't Seth's fault that Abbey had killed her father. that she had been forced to confront her people in the worst way possible.  In the end it was her decision, he'd just given her the facts.

Abbey admitted that some illogical part of her blamed Seth.  She understood that Seth knew this and was sensitive to this because he left her alone for the most part.  He had explained that Abbey had to be careful while working with the computers.  She couldn't snow on them, so Abbey had to be careful to pay attention to if she was getting over heated, and take breaks if it even got to the point she would start to snow. 

Besides that, Seth acted as the main negotiator working on the human side of getting a monster into the states and from what Abominable had told Abbey through email that Seth even helped support him while he turned his dream of sending a yeti to the states into a reality.  He was supportive in everything, and he avoided Abbey at every turn.  Abbey needed to forgive him.  Really forgive him, because maybe it wasn't his fault, but Abbey blamed him without thinking.  Actually, if she could just forgive him, she would. 

Abbey sighed and sent a quick email to her tutor asking if he could pull her an article or book online that was actually was neutral.  Abbey had first read Karuna's human version of a big vampire debacle in Transylvania, now she had read an ebook from the monster point of view.  Even some of the dates and what happened were skewed.  Abbey wasn't sure what was true.  She guessed that she could trust vampires more on what they actually were, which didn't include bursting into flames in the sun. 

Abbey had been assigned a program and tech support that would teach her to work with the technology over a week.  Abbey had been declared a master in two days.  She didn't know why, but she really took to this technology thing.  It was weird and foreign, especially at first, but she quickly got how it worked, and even her typing was at a satisfactory speed.  Now the only problem came in getting access to information.  It seemed even the internet was limited to her.  Abbey had one user name, and three passwords that required different things in them, and more answers to security questions than she dared try to remember.  So she kept them safe in the little notebook she used for taking notes.

It was weird.  Abbey had thought she would hate school and learning.  Instead she found herself loving it.  All the information, and balancing that information with irrational humans and monsters that gave their own spin to situations.  Abbey liked reading them, so she could compare, decode, and figure out what really happened.  Sometimes, especially in the beginning, it had been irritating, but now, after a month of stuffing her head and getting more and more access to databases through Seth, Karuna, and her tutor, she felt she would be ready for high school. 

Karuna of course shot this down the first time she said it.  He pointed out that most of the people in the states not only took lessons since they were five, but they had access to the best education available.  Indu skipped over to Abbey to get her out of the chair.

"Come on, we don't need you overheating during dinner like last week," said Indu, leaning over and turning off Abbey's monitor.  Abbey rolled her eyes, but she had already signed off.  "Plus, there's something I want to show you."

"The play thing right?" asked Abbey with a sigh.  She didn't like the sound of those plays.  They were silly, why would you pretend to be someone else when it was so hard to figure out who you were in the first place?

"It's different.  You'll like it," Indu said with a sigh as she pushed Abbey out of the computer lab.  As Indu bumbled herself up in the hallway, Abbey went into the daylight and let the wind whip over her face.  The sun was starting to get a bit warm as spring moved in, but Abbey reminded herself that she had survived the summer without knowing how to pull her cold into her body.  Plus, according to everyone, including her tutor, she would be dealing with worse than summer heat at sometimes during the year then.

Abbey leaned against the wall with a yawn.  She had classes from 9:30am until 3:00pm, and then at 5:00pm was dinner where afterwards she would spend time with her friends and then she had work from 10:00pm until 6:00am.  On Saturdays the computer lab wasn't open until 11:30 and on Sunday she didn't have classes or work.  Abbey might be a yeti, but that schedule even made her exhausted, especially since she spent reading and discussing what she learned with Karuna.  Abbey didn't have to worry about nightmares the last two weeks, she'd even slept through a good deal of Sunday even. 

Indu came out of the building and looked around jumping when Abbey put a hand on her shoulder.  The human smiled and slipped her hand into Abbey's gloved on.  While Abbey could walk around in normal clothing, she tended to try and cover all her skin, and she even rolled up a cloth to cover her mouth.  Part of the reason was because she could draw the cold into her body, she still had flashes where she would freeze the pencils and paper and various things.  She didn't need a human brushing her bare skin and getting frozen, usually her own temperature only affected the thing she was touching directly. 

The half mask the small the small yeti had first blamed on keeping the humans comfortable since she had always worn it before, but then admitted that Indu had a point.  Abbey found herself imagining that she wore the same thick lipstick as Kshama.  But Indu told her they would be getting something else.  Apparently only old women wear thick lipstick like Kshama's or something.

Abbey sighs.  Humans have so many different types of rules, but unlike yetis, these are unwritten or even unspoken rules.  Every once in a while Abbey would tell Indu that she didn't care and wasn't a human.  Sometimes she would say the most random things, like how she had told Abbey the other night that she needed someone to go with her to Karuna's apartment.  Abbey had pointed out that she could kick any humans butt, even if they overwhelmed with numbers.  She did control cold after all.  Indu had rolled her eyes and said it wasn't appropriate, to which Abbey had told her that unlike humans yetis weren't prudes.

It turned out that they came to where a bunch of booths were set up.  There was a long line of them where the older humans  were looking at the booths and chatting together while most of the little ones were playing organized games.  There was a lot of talking.  Abbey was surprised the air hadn't thinned to nothing.

"Come on, I love this thing.  You'd think we'd have nothing after being penned in here all winter," said Indu. "But somehow we also have enough hot food to pass around.  Helps now that we have the yetis to trade with.  We have a bunch of junk we saved but they didn't want or didn't have anything to trade it with and some of their stuff ends up in general circulation this way instead of being traded right down to the bottom of the mountain."

Abbey nodded, clasping her hand tighter in Indu's so that she wouldn't lose the human.  Indu looked over at her in surprise and then smiled widely, giving Abbey's hand a little squeeze. 

They sent time looking around.  Indu bought them a hot drink, which Abbey rolled her eyes at before she froze her drink.  Indu laughed but Abbey knew better than to freeze her drink.  It was cold for humans.  So Indu probably needed something to keep her warm. 

"Come on Abbey, the hat would look adorable on you," said Indu.  Abbey dodges, not a hard thing seeing as she's a good deal taller than Indu is.  The humans around them ignore them for the most part.  The children tended to look at Abbey's skin and either run away, or look at her in fascination until someone took them away.  The teenagers tended to look at her in disgust or chat with their friends and laugh, and the adults tended to either ignore her completely or look at her in fear and anger. 

For the most part.

Now they had some trouble.  There were a lot of humans in one place.  Abbey hadn't been in a place so crowded with humans until after she showed she was human.  Some sent Abbey a sideways look, and the yeti had to wonder if

"Hey, look at this.  I haven't seen this from the yetis yet," said Indu, disappearing into the crowd that she could apparently see through.  Abbey bit down the instinctive need to sigh.  She was still half sure that any moment the air was going to run out from the useless and constant use of air. 

Thankfully Indu hadn't wandered too far away.  What she was starring at made Abbey pause.  It was her painting.  Abbey had known they were going to sell her pictures, but she hadn't really thought the humans would be interested in buying.  For one thing, her paintings were a horrid mess.  More shapes and colors that hardly formed any kind of discernible picture.  But ere one was, up for sale, Abbey didn't know if the price was cheap.  She tended to tell her friends to buy whatever they wanted with her money, which she was pretty sure they ignored, but Abbey just knew she had enough to pay off living in her shack, and if she or her friends got low on food, she knew she could hunt.  Clothes were also easy enough.  Maybe she didn't make the best, but she could put together a decent set of armor out of skins if given time and away to find material.

"Ah, yes," said a slick voice.  Abbey watched as a middle aged woman came to stand next to Indu, also looking at the painting. "Interesting isn't it?  We think they painted it with the dyes they have.  I see their ghosts heading to the cold stars, but others see deeper.  I had one girl who couldn't bring herself to buy it, but couldn't stop looking at it, kept calling it the ugliest thing she'd seen."

The woman smiled over at Indu, but Indu wasn't paying her any attention, her eyes firmly locked on the picture, though Abbey was staring at the healers head.  The saleswoman than turned to Abbey, her smile wide and twisted.

"What about you dear..." the last word she strangled and her voice hitched up.  Abbey watched as the woman took a hurried step back then another as she tripped over her feet.  Indu finally seemed to be able tare her eyes from the painting and looked over at Abbey.

"Come on Abbey, I want to see if we can find something for that shack of yours," said Indu.  Abbey rolled her eyes.  She spent hardly any time in there.  She didn't really need anything.

"Indu what do you think you're doing?" demanded the woman.  Abbey looked back as the saleswoman grabbed at Indu.  Abbey glared at her.

"You have no control over me, let go," Indu demanded.  She wrenched her arm but the saleswoman had a too firm grip.  Abbey decided to intervene, but when she reached forward it only increased the woman's grip.  Abbey took the woman's wrist in her own and even sent a slight frost over her arm.  Finally Indu was able to wrench her grip away.

"She's dangerous," snapped the woman and even though Abbey was trying to pull her away from the grabby human, Indu leaned toward the woman.

"You have no control over my life," snapped Indu, and Abbey felt like she was holding onto Indu not to save her friend but the woman who had assaulted her. "You have no right to try and tell me who my friends should be."

"I thought the exaggerations of your company..."

"You abandoned me when I became a healer instead of going to the states," snarled Indu.  Abbey held the human's arm a little tighter as Indu actually appeared to want to fight the woman.  Seeing as neither woman probably had any fighting experience or training, and them fighting would be pathetic and lead to nothing but a headache, and Karuna would rightfully tell Abbey off for not stopping it. 

Finally, as the woman went to snap at Indu, Indu turned and started storming in the opposite direction.  Abbey followed her and Abbey quickly looked behind her to make sure the saleswoman wasn't following them.  The woman just watched them, her face red and her hands twisted together.  She looked like she wanted to run and catch Indu and continue to argue or fight with her but was restraining her. 

Indu actually stormed all the way out of the booths and into the cold where she plopped herself down on the snow.  Abbey followed and quickly wondered how long it would be until her friend got pneumonia, or whatever it was that killed humans even after they got warmed up again.  For one thing, even through clothe, they tended to melt cold things.  Humans apparently ran very hot. 

"Sorry," said Indu after at least fifteen minutes of sitting.  Abbey was only paying attention since it was slowly getting close to five. "I didn't mean for you to that or her."

Abbey touched Indu's lips and Indu laughed. "Karuna is right you know.  You can talk now."

Abbey just shrugged.  She could explain for the millionth time that she didn't believing in wasting breath, but it was one of those things that didn't stick.  Like having to explain or insult Karuna every time he asked why girls spent so much time primping.  Especially when he spent as much time as Indu did on his own morning rituals. 

"You wouldn't understand anyway.  Even after they banished you, you couldn't let them go.  You kept their ideals and it was obvious that you still loved them," Abbey stared at Indu, willing her to say the right thing so she would know exactly what the human was referring to.  It was amazing how much humans could talk without saying anything or missing the most important part. "Your family means everything to you."

"Kshama is your family," Abbey pointed out and Indu laughed, her tone fractured.

"She's the family that matters, but..." Indu broke off, her throat closing off. "I used to talk about it all the time.  How they left me.  How I was so much more than they dared call me.  I used to tell anyone, at a drop of the hat.  It made me a pariah to everyone but Karuna, but it helped.  The more I talked about it, the more liberated I felt.  As I said.  You wouldn't understand.  You would see your family and probably hug them, not talk smack behind their back."

"Smack?" asked Abbey, but Indu just laughed that broken way.  Abbey sat next to Indu and draped her arm around the human.  Her temperature would not be comfortable to the human, but that didn't matter in the long run. Maybe it was time for her to honest.  To say the truth completely about what was going on. "I killed my father.  I can't be with my tribe because my old tribe is being brought into it.  I am driven to the states to run away from my family."

Indu looked up at her as if trying to see if she was telling the truth.

"That's why you couldn't stay," she said sadly.  Abbey nodded.  Indu let out a breath. "Then my family problems just seem petty."

"They hurt you," said Abbey, making sure to say everything so she didn't have to repeat herself, especially since it seemed Indu was half lost in her own thoughts. "To forgive is hard, maybe even the wrong decision if they want to control you."

"After ignoring me for so long, the realize that their abandoning me at the first sign of trouble is what made me lose any chance of going to the states.  Then of course they realize how integral the healer of a village is," said Indu with a snort. "They're morons.  Ever since the attack they've been trying to reconnect and then criticizing everything.  You came up, but they're so blind they thought my involvement was over exaggerated."

"Did have a problem selling yeti paintings," Abbey pointed out.

"Nope," said Indu with that same broken chuckle. "They're the worst kind hypocrites.  Anyway, it doesn't matter.  Karuna is my family, and we're yours.  But I'll be here if you need to talk."

With a shake of her head and a sigh, Abbey stood and offered her hand to Indu to help her up.  They needed to head to dinner.  Indu smiled and grabbed her hand. 

Dinner was the usual affair.  Karuna asked an insane amount of questions for someone who had refused to go to the fair.  And apparently there had been a play going on, but since neither Abbey or Indu had gone to see it, Lakshya got to explain what happened.  Abbey mulled over what Indu had told her.  Would it make things easier if she talked about her lost tribe?  She didn't like to talk.  It wasn't in her nature to mull over the past when the future was what was important. 

Still, reflecting on the past seemed odd to her, but Karuna said there was a human saying where you had to understand your history so you didn't make the same mistakes. 

As usual they met in front of the fire.  Indu helped undue the complicated braid pattern they'd put in each other's hair as they participated in different online conversations.  The lag during those were horrible, and their tutors had them write up their reflections for the class to view since whenever they tried to join the conversation they would be at least two topics behind.  So most of their contributation came in reflections and the responses, at least to Abbey's, had been interesting so far and very informative.  Abbey had actually started what she was pretty sure was a touchy argument in a class she'd been assigned that accepted human and monster students. 

Lakshya sighed and complained when Abbey started putting up her hair.  The two girls gave him a look but he just sighed again.

"What is Lakshya?" asked Indu as she continued to paint her nails, her hair already down for the evening.

"Why does Abbey have to put her hair up?  It looks so pretty shinning in the moon light," said Lakshya.  Abbey just looked at him incredulously.  Maybe the yetis had been taken care of for the time being, but there were still dangerous mountain animals and giants that could potentially kill and cause a lot of damage and even death.  He shouldn't be trivializing it that much.

Abbey stared at Lakshya and then looked at Karuna who was smirking and shaking his head as he pretended to read some thick tomb.  This was Lakshya they were talking about.  He tended to think about anything but fighting.  Abbey wondered if he had even fought during the battle, and she had a feeling from the hints he had given that the answer was no.  This irritated her, of course, but Abbey was starting to think that most humans were distinctly unsuited mentally for fighting physically.  Perhaps if she were a better yeti she would find his actions appalling, but instead she just found herself exasperated by the humans way of figuring out who would protect.  They assumed that every son would be interested in his father's work, and even her guild had known better than that. 

Of course, the gender thing still threw Abbey off, but she was sure in her mixed class she would one day be able to bring up the question of whether it was assumed everywhere that females of the human species weren't fit for combat. 

Abbey reached over and took thing hair clips with plenty of glitter and cute looking little snow leopards with big cute eyes and offered them Lakshya.

"You wear those," said Abbey.  Lakshya looked at them and then at Abbey, his expression one that was twisted in confusion.  Abbey started to put them back in their box. 

"Wait, Indu help me," said Lakshya.  Karuna groaned and literally buried himself in his book.  Indu just looked at the guard for a long moment before she sighed and started to pull back the hair and started putting them in the best she could so they would stay there. Abbey instantly let her bun fall and instead threw her hair in a fast ponytail.  Maybe she would let it down, but she needed a little control of her hair.

"You are getting better at being inclusive," Abbey complimented Indu, the human just shrugged.

"I did try to teach you about human girl customs when I thought you were male," said Indu, then she sent an irritated look Karuna's way. "Plus, I'm trying to be a good model to some people who are going to be moving to a more diverse and progressive place then here."

"You hear that Karuna?" Abbey asked when Karuna continued to pretend to read.  The human male looked up briefly before with a roll of his eyes he stuck his nose in the book again. "I have to go get ready."

Abbey spent the next few weeks working out the kinks in her schedule.  Her studies were going along quickly, and her tutor demanded to know if she was cheating because she couldn't believe Abbey could know so much already with no prior lessons. She even got to see Abominable again, though the little yetis didn't come with him much to everyone's disappointment, well eveyone that mattered anyway. 

Soon the ice was melting and Abbey was not only perfecting her ability to meditate and regulate her temperature, but looking forward to the three day break she would get when they went down the mountain to go shopping with her friends.  Unfortunately Kshama couldn't come with them.  She needed to stay in case of medical emergencies and she said her old bones were too old to make the trek down and then up the mountain.

Abbey also made a conscious effort to talk about her old tribe more.  It had confused the others until Indu realized and told everyone else what she was doing.  It was awkward at first, but the more she talked about it the easier it became.  And she found that while she still couldn't and didn't want to talk about what they had done to hurt her, instead she talked about the good or neutral moments.  And the more she talked the more she dredged up names from her memory and the more she scraped away from moments of violence.  Maybe it wasn't perfect, but the more she was with the humans the more she learned to be and accept who she was.


	22. A Dragon Meet

They went snowboarding the day before they headed down the mountain.  Abbey basked in the power even as other humans were able to go faster than her.  Instead Abbey concentrated on doing tricks and enjoying the cool air.  At one point she took an hour to find a nice secluded place where she could snow bathe.  Unfortunately Karuna was the one who found her, and even though she had kept her under things on, he still squeaked and started screaming something about his eyes and Abbey's something.  Really humans were very silly.

Indu came a bit later, after Abbey had already dressed and was getting her snowboard back on.  She looked a bit putout to see Abbey already done, and scolded Karuna for being a prude.  Abbey just rolled her eyes.  Indu went through phases of what she thought was proper and what wasn't.  There had been a fifty percent chance she would join Karuna in scolding Abbey for being indecent.  That was the thing, Indu had a certain set of codes written in her that clashed.  She had the basic cultural one, and then she had the medical one.  The cultural one made her giggly, prudish, loose tongued, and obsessed with her looks.  The medical one made her tight lipped, severe, and unashamed of the human body and any of its workings.  Somehow she kept them separate, if not always in the right context.

The next morning Karuna pulled her from the bed.  The last few weeks really had been hard on Abbey in the sleep department.  The lack of sleep worried Karuna.  The human had never had to drag Abbey out of bed when she wasn't injured.  Abbey had told him not to worry, that the only way for her to get any sleep was to be too tired that she was knocked out cold otherwise she would wake up to another nightmare. 

Oddly enough, that did not comfort Karuna.

Eventually Abbey started stripping and going for the clothes she'd laid out before she went snowboarding.  Karuna made his usual choking noise and turned his back while sitting backwards in his chair.  The human knew better than leave Abbey's house when she was getting ready, Abbey had a bad habit of curling up to fall asleep again. 

As Abbey stood up, she grabbed her bag and hit Karuna with it as she left.  It wasn't that she was irritated that he woke her up, she just liked giving him a hard time.

A carriage that rattled and made too much noise came up the mountain, and Karuna passed the man driving it money along with a few other villagers.  The ride to the tram was long, but nothing prepared Abbey for what a tram actually was.  She probably would have run at that point.  When she'd looked up tram online it was a metal contraption that went on the ground. The speeds it was reported going sounded like an exaggeration, but then Abbey did more research and saw that in technological areas the tram was actually slow.

This was not that.  This was a metal contraception was hanging by what looked like flimsy metal lines suspended a hundred feet in the air.  Abbey took one big step back and it took her friends and a smiling employee to convince her the thing was safe to go on.  Abbey would have rather snowboarded down the mountain, but it looked like further down the snow was gone. 

So Abbey scrunched herself up in a corner, telling herself that she would be flying one day and she needed to try everything at least once, especially when it was something she couldn't avoid. She instantly took out her diary.  These days she kept three notebooks on her.  A sketchpad and two ones with lined paper.  One was for writing assignments and notes from her classes, and the other one was a journal her tutor told her to keep in order to work on her spelling.  Abbey would take it out during work, and scribble a couple of paragraphs.

"You should start writing in Fanglish," said Karuna, leaning over to read her writing.  Abbey looked at him sideways but leaned back for him to see.  Karuna would point out any misspellings and grammar for her that she missed while writing.

"What the hell is Fanglish?" Indu demanded coming to sit next to Abbey.  She then shivered and leaned away.  This low in the mountains it was the same temperature as Karuna's village in the summer.  Her human friends had changed into lighter clothes while Abbey concentrated on holding the cold deep in her body and keep from snowing since she wasn't allowed to snow near electronics and Abbey would rather not plummet.

"Think about it," Karuna told Indu.  The girl just looked at him in irritation. "You do realize that Abbey's iphone is called an icoffin right?"

Indu continued to look at him incredulously until suddenly her face morphed into one of understanding and then she did something the humans called a face palm. "Oh God, that is horrible.  Not even supernatural creatures are allowed to make puns that bad."

"Monsters," said Abbey, smiling at her friends overdramatic reaction.

"You people make no sense," Indu said, bending her knees so she could hide behind them.  Their antics had attracted Lakshya's attention, he started to drift in their direction, turning down whoever he had been talking to. 

"It makes some sense," Abbey defended. "A monster I talked to said that they started calling themselves monsters in the states to make the word lose its negative connotation  while they were still underground for the most part.  The horrible puns are their way of having their own identity when they had to take on human ones for so long."

"That makes no sense," said Lakshya.

"Actually it's a European tradition according to Abbey's book," said Karuna, when Abbey looked over at him he shrugged. "You write your account names and passwords and then leave them lying open all through class.  I thought it was an invitation."

Indu glared and shook her head at Karuna while Lakshya tried to hide a laugh.  Abbey snapped her journal close.

"Do they dot their "i's" with sculls?" asked Lakshya.  Abbey rolled her eyes and Indu kicked out at him, and Karuna snorted.

"Actually Indu, I've seen some monster writing, that's actually what some of them do," said Karuna, smiling.  Indu groaned and everyone had a small chuckle.

When they got down to the bottom of the mountain, the first thing the friends did was find their lodgings.  As agreed, they had only brought one full pack, sure to bring another to fill with whatever they bought.  Abbey found that she had to quickly find a place outside to let it snow around her, it was a lot hotter than she had ever imagined possible.  Her only consolation was while that while the humans around her seemed unaffected by the heat, her friends all came out sweating, Indu fanning herself, and Lakshya pretending to collapse from heat.

Their room had something called air-conditioning that made the room tolerably cold, however she had to room with all of them to save on money.  That meant they had to find a good temperature that would be cold enough for Abbey but hot enough for her friends.  Afterwards Karuna gave her a purse where inside was a credit card and some money.  When Abbey glared at him, Karuna lifted his hands, telling Abbey that it was the money she earned from her guard duty that she hadn't looked into yet despite Karuna giving her information on her bank account.  Karuna also gave her a bank statement, telling her that they would make a budget so they didn't overspend.

Then they headed to the post office where Karuna had asked for some of their school supplies to be held for some reason instead of being brought up the mountain.  They picked them up and Karuna hastily opened his and as they walked to the mall to go "window shopping" which did not mean what it sounded like, they looked them over.  They was a ipad for Karuna from his the college that had accepted him, and an itomb for Abbey.  They were basically the same thing.  Though Abbey's casing had designs of spiderwebs and her background was a wicked looking pumpkin. 

The two things were filled with books for their classes, though Karuna said that some books were not available to be downloaded, so Abbey still had some normal books to read.  Abbey found the prospect of reading a book on her itomb fascinating.  The books humans read always seemed cumbersome, not heavy, but sometimes uncomfortable to hold.  Like carrying a table, though not quite that unwieldy.  Plus, Abbey found herself fascinated by technology, and to her, what was at least fifty books on one little tablet, or whatever the humans called it, was much better than wasting so much space and paper. 

They ended up standing outside the mall for ten minutes and letting it snow on her, the cold flurries almost melting even as they hit her cheek.  Karuna showed took her itomb away until he realized that her itomb had been tampered with so that her cold temperature wouldn't destroy the electronics. 

As Abbey looked around at all the different humans she couldn't help but feel a little out of place.  There were no monsters to be seen, at least, Abbey didn't think so.  She looked for subtle signs, pointed teeth, pointy or gloppy ears, a slight change in color of skin. The skin thing was a little hard, this area was apparently relatively popular place and humans were all shades of brown, and no one was an obvious orange or made out of snow or have fur. Still, this city was supposed to have a fairly large monster population.

The streets were a bit dirty and overly crowded, but humans looked at Abbey and gave Abbey and her friends a wide berth. 

The mall was even worse.  Abbey could feel the hot air surround her and all the humans now squeezed in a little too close.  The place was clean and bright.  The boys went off into one store and Indu dragged Abbey into a different one, apparently some human stores only sold to one gender, no wonder there was so much difference and controversy between the two sexes. 

Indu immediately went for a display of scarves, bringing her own down around her neck.  Abbey took a wider look around the store, just moving out of the way of the automatic doors.  She looked around, everywhere there was clothes, often it included at least two articles of clothing and even accessories such as necklaces.  There are even pictures of happy female humans wearing their clothes. 

Abbey noticed that Indu had been approached by a young woman with a nametag pinned to her shirt.  It looked like she was helping her friend pick something out so Abbey decided it was time to stop playing shy and look around.  None of the clothes really spoke to her, though the problem just could be that the ones she would like were not on display.  Abbey tried to put a finger on what it was she didn't like so she could figure out what she did like.

Eventually Abbey's wandering led her to a hat rack.  It was one of the smaller displays with very little to look through.  Head scarves were usually more popular.  Abbey took one off the shelf and put it on her head, there was a full length mirror.  The hat was a light gold color and had such a wide but weak brim that it sagged a little on her head.  Abbey laughed.  It looked utterly ridiculous. 

"What are you doing here?" a screeching older teen human  shouted.  Abbey looked over at her, and raised an eyebrow as the woman got right into her personal space.  Abbey didn't back off, but she did stand a little taller.  She didn't want to hurt the girl, but she would defend herself if she had to. "You're in the wrong district."

"What?" asked Abbey, she grabbed the girls wrist when she tried to grab her.

"Let go!  Someone call the police!" shouted the woman.  Abbey let her go and took a step back, but the woman, instead of backing up or running away like a normal person would do, she instead went on the attack.  Abbey caught her and easy pushed her to the ground, to which another person screamed, and then there was Indu and a lot happened.

Next thing Abbey knew they were all thrown out of the mall and apparently lucky not to have been thrown in jail.  Abbey thought it was ridiculous that she was being blamed for this.  She hadn't been the instigator, it had been the woman who had exploded, Abbey had just been stopping her from attacking.  The girl should have been the one led out of the mall.

"What happened?" Indu demanded for what seemed like the hundredth time.  Abbey rolled her eyes, she was sick of explaining herself.  Abbey figured that Indu was panicking and demanding answers in the hope they would change to fit into something that made the place an easier place to comprehend.  Or at least so it was Abbey's fault they were thrown out so Indu could rant at someone and be justifiably angry with them. "Where are we going?  They were yelling about Abbey being on the wrong side of town, but if we go to the right one will they throw us out?"

"What?" asked Lakshya, he had been the last person drawn into the confusion, and instead of taking charge like his father probably would, he stumbled behind, mute and completely confused. 

"Maybe I can help," said a silky voice.  They all stopped and a girl, height, shape, and fashion perhaps hinting that she was a teenager.  She walked in front of them and pulled her hood back just far enough for them to see shiny yellow skin and eyes.  She smirked and quickly hid her face again. "Come I know a place that will offer all of us service."

Abbey followed as soon as the monster started to walk away.  Her friends followed her a second later.  Abbey watched the monster as she walked.  The monster was wearing killer heels and the hint of a tail with green fur on the end peeked out from under the black coat she was wearing.  Abbey was actually impressed that the monster was wearing such a heavy coat, Abbey would be dying of heat if she tried that.

They ended up sitting outside a nice looking cafe.  Now Abbey could see a little diversity where they were.  There was a boy with horns sticking out of his face and an odd purple tint to his skin.  There were a couple of girls giggling over tea that were stone and had bat like ears and neon hair.  Another girl kept shimmering in and out of focus.  One older looking gentleman in a nice suit and red eyes just stared at them, as if shocked to see them together.

"The usual please," said the scaly teenager to the waiter.  He was a very interesting looking individual with blue hair, black skin and four arms.  He looked over at them and gave them a nervous smile.

"I'll have whatever she's having," said Indu nervously.

"Same," said Karuna.

"Something cold," said Abbey.  The waiter nodded and after making a quick note in his notebook, he scurried off. 

"I am Jenafire Long," said the teen.  The monster slipped out of her cloak, and Abbey was amazed to see her.  She not only had golden scales and eyes, but her eyes were also slitted like a cats and her lips were purple.  Abbey noted that under all her layers she dressed in what she had come to know as a very feminine manner.  She wore a purple dress that clung tight to her body with only one sleeve, and a fishnet over the other arm.  Her hair was longer than Abbey's and was a vibrant green color with purple streaks and some of it was gathered in a bun on the top of her head, held by an ornate stick and accented with a flower. 

"What are you?" asked Abbey.  Indu kicked Abbey under the table and the yeti sent her friend a glare.  How was it wrong to ask?  She had only met humans and yetis before and it was clear that this girl was neither.

"It is alright," Jinafire said with a giggle to Indu. "She is not human or a vampire so I know she is not asking to be rude. I am a dragon, a Chinese Dragon to be specific. And what are you, if you mind me asking?  I would say based on your general color and cold coming from your body that you are a yeti, but I have never seen one with such colorful hair or so small."

"I am a very small yeti," said Abbey.

"With gorgeous hair that Indu obsesses over," muttered Lakshya and Abbey laughed and rolled her eyes as Indu clearly kicked him under the again. 

"It is always nice to meet someone new.  I come through this city once in a while on my way to or from home," said Jinafire, folding her hands and lacing her fingers. "It is one of the most diverse in the world."

"But I have heard of other major city.  Like Paris which the monsters call..."

"Scaris," the dragon interrupted and cast a small smile Karuna's way even as he blushed. "They are actually two completely different cities on the same continent.  They're close together, kinda, and they have a sort of mirror to them, like if you're a monster you are passive-aggressively forced out of Paris, and if you are a human you are passive-aggressively scared out of Scaris.  Beautiful in its own way, but not exactly the right step in human/monster relations."

"So what?  We're being hopeful that we can live in peace with monsters?" asked Indu a little breathlessly.

"No," said Jinafire, smiling as she got her drink and delicately sipping it. "Peace, at least tentatively, is possible.  Integration, however, is a long way off, if ever possible."

"No, in the states..." began Karuna, but Jinafire just rolled her eyes and waved her hands like she was shooing away a bug.

"Do not get me wrong.  I would love to see humans and monsters come together.  There is something elegant in the simplicity of human attire," said Jinafire, her head titling to the side as her eyes glazed over in thought.  Then she shrugged. "However, the monsters from the states usually don't talk about their areas being as peaceful or as handholding as the rumors claim.  Then again, they don't describe an environment as horrible as people claim that they really are either."

"So basically, don't judge until you've been there," said Lakshya, smiling at Jinafire and sipping at his cup and giving her those eyes that apparently ensnared girls in his charms.  It made Jinafire giggle and roll her eyes. Lakshya didn't seem fazed and turned and leaned against the table as he addressed Karuna. "So you'll have to fill us in."

Karuna rolled his eyes own eyes, and then turned to Jinafire, his yes wracking over her.  There was a light in his eyes, the kind he got when he got to do a video chat with some expert overseas.  Lately quite a few of his interests had strayed toward monsters, which the village would probably disapprove, after all, how much money could someone working with monsters make?  They didn't want Karuna as an ambassador, they wanted him to keep the village afloat with the other humans they had sent.

"Um, not that this isn't interesting," said Indu, giving Karuna a meaningful look, "but why did you have us come here?  Was it just your good deed for the day, saving Abbey from the mob?"

"Indu," said Karuna in a long whine.  Indu just shook him a glare. 

"Where are you staying?" asked the dragon.

"The same one we always stay at," said Karuna, and showed her where it was.  Jinafire made a face and clucked and shook her head.

"Too far into the human zone," said Jinafire with a sigh, and held up a hand when Indu and Karuna started to try and argue. "They might seem inclusive now, but as soon as something goes wrong, especially after the ruckus today, she will get blamed for it.  I've seen it happen before."

"But then, what can we do?" asked Karuna.  Jinafire folded her fingers together and rested her chin on then.  Looking hard at Abbey's friend before finally sighing and shaking her head.

"Unfortunately I don't know of any hotels that would truly be open to housing both humans and monsters," the dragon said with a sigh. "However, if you do not to be separate the entire time, then we  can work something else."

"I don't know," said Indu, looking over at Karuna and Lakshya. "We're on a bit of a budget.  Abbey needs to get some clothes appropriate for school.  She's going to a high school over in the states, and that's the nicest thing she has.  Most of what she wears is guard uniforms."

"Guard uniforms?" asked Jinafire and then shook her head, the few loose green hair flopping. "No, no, no.  That is not the right impression to give, especially in the states where they become instantly violent if anyone on the other side shows even a hint of aggression.  But, you are in luck.  I have an apartment for the next week, paid by my employer."

"Really?" asked Karuna. "You must be important."

"Not really," said Jinafire, covering a giggle. She closed her eyes and let her head tilt to one side. "I'm just interning, but it's fun.  I get to sew the next seasons line for our models."

"Interning?" asked Karuna. "I thought you didn't even get paid for those."

"Depends on the internship," Jinafire said with a shrug. "It helps when your aunt is one of the bigwigs.  She really thinks I have potential, so I'm working my way up the ladder wrung by wrung.  So far, even as I start to draw my own stuff, not even my aunt will look at it yet."

"You're a designer?" asked Indu excitedly.  Jinafire smiled and gave a graceful nod.

"Yes," she said confidently. "Of course, I've only ever designed for monsters.  I'm afraid my tastes might be a bit much for human taste."

"But you'll be able to help Abbey pick out an appropriate outfit for a monster high school?" asked Indu.  Abbey looked up at that.  Why did it seem like people kept making plans for her ever since she made the big one on coming back to the village.  It was like she took back control of her life just to lose it again.

"Well, I think so.  I'm not sure if the styles are quite the same," said Jinafire.

"But you will know better what I need than my..." Abbey looked at Jinafire.  They were sharing food and the Chinese dragon was inviting Abbey into her temporary home.  That meant the dragon meant for them to be friends.  Might only be for a little bit. "My human friends."

Jinafire must have understood what Abbey meant because she leaned over, catching Abbey's fingers in her own and giving a squeeze before she wrapped a hand around her hot cup. "I'd be happy to help you.  We have the day off tomorrow.  I think it's to give us time to get ready before the big crunch for the next month."

"Really? You said you worked with models right?" asked Indu, leaning in interest.  Karuna sighed and then smiled when the waiter brought them their meal. "Are they monster models?"

"Yup, mostly ones from the Eastern regions.  Unfortunately the designers we're working for weren't very diverse this year around," said Jinafire with a sigh. "I swear, I would even like to design for a vampire, and they're the most conceited, over-hyped of all monsters.  But, I could show you some of last season's designs.  Are you also a designer?"

"Um no, a healer actually, but I like to keep up with current fashion when I can, and messing with cosmetics and such," said Indu, blushing, and curling her fingers in the bit of loose hair she had.

"That's wonderful," said Jinafire, clapping her hands together. "Actually, if you have free time tomorrow.  Well, there's a group of girls I'm working with whole adore the simpler attire of humans.  I mean, they are obsessed, but because the industry is saturated with old stiffs, well, they don't get a chance to really meet anyone who knows anything about it.  I think they would love to meet you, and they could show you monster hair styles."

"Really?" asked Indu, shoving some food into her mouth and then talking around it. "That would be great.  Yetis are only just starting to get a sense of style, Abbey included, so I wasn't even sure monsters were into that sort of thing."

"Then you haven't read enough on vampires," said Karuna with a roll of his eyes, pushing his food around on his plate.

"Monster's definitely enjoy fashion, the industry had really taken off since we officially came out of the woodworks," said Jinafire, smiling sweetly. "You'd be surprised how many monsters are vain beyond reason."

"Are you sure they would want to meet me?" asked Indu, and Karuna groaned.

"Of course, as I said, they are really interested in human fashion.  Probably humans in general.  Who knows, maybe we'll do better than our parents and actually break the barrier between humans and monsters and be friends," said Jinafire.  The rest of lunch trickled away, lost in conversation.  Abbey got the feeling that she would have ended up shopping the next day and staying with Jinafire even if she hadn't spoken up.  Abbey didn't know if she was happy she had spoken for herself, even if it was only to solidify what was already decided.  Of course, Abbey wasn't sure if she was disappointed in herself for wasting air either. 

They then went and got Abbey's stuff out of the hotel.  Jinafire donning on her black cape, drawing the hood over her eyes and telling them that she heard this was the perfect disguise.  Karuna and Indu had laughed at her, and Abbey had thrown ice at their feet.  Though she had to listen to Lakshya explanation as to why Jinafire was wrong to understand.  Abbey had just known that sort of noise meant they were laughing at Jinafire's expense.  Not cruelly, it's just that humans didn't always understand the right ways to make new friends and could be antagonistic about it and cause confusion even among their own kind. 

Karuna and Lakshya made a lot of noise about moving Abbey out.  Not naming Jinafire, but making it clear they had found somewhere in the monster part of town to settle her in.  Jinafire's place was nice.  A little airy, and a little hot.  So while Jinafire went to show Abbey's three human friends around the parts of town that had monsters in it that they would still be welcome, Abbey walked up to the roof and sat down to meditate.  She must have ended up falling asleep because her friends woke her up as the sky had just started to tint to hint that soon it would be dark. 

They went to another restaurant that accepted and catered to both humans and monsters.  There Jinafire introduced the three humans to her friends that they would meet after lunch when the humans were done with their own shopping.  Jinafire outlined for Abbey what they would be doing.  Not too different, though she was more organized in her plans, though she said that they could change at any moment. 

Somehow this ended to a loud situation where they ended up at the studio that the monsters worked at as they begged management to be able to use the catwalk the next evening since apparently Abbey was going to model her clothes, and the others were going to model whatever Indu helped them think up.  Of course, Abbey found herself defending her friends from weird looking monsters that Abbey had only seen and learned about over the internet. 

By the end they somehow did get the catwalk.  Abbey was a bit nervous, but they ended up in the apartment after midnight and Abbey opened the refrigerator and fell asleep on the floor.  Though for some reason, not long after, she woke up and curled up in bed with Jinafire, who only sighed, wrapped her arms around Abbey, and never woke up or complained about how cold the yeti was.

 


	23. Shopping Trip

The first thing they did when they woke up was detangled from each other.  Well, first Jinafire tried to give Abbey a bath with her tongue.  She stopped the second she started, Abbey's skin was way too cold to try that on.  She made gagging noises and then laughed herself silly.  Abbey watched her with interest, but soon it was clear that Jinafire was not freaking out which would have happened with any of her human friends, Jinafire was just laughing at herself for trying to lick something so cold. The Chinese Dragon explained it was something instinctual that dragons did, at least her kind.  When they were young they slept in a clutch together, and it was a way to help stay clean, too many little ones for a parent to clean each one.  Later, usually the one who ended up in a dragons bed was a lover where cleaning was a sign of trust since it meant you and your lover trusted one another to fall asleep together.

Abbey found herself blushing at the lover part.  She was quickly learning that yetis were one of the few creatures on earth who slept together platonically.  Not that yetis didn't like sex.  They were the same as any other creature in that regard Abbey was sure.  But they didn't associate it with sleeping, and while it happened at night, it also wasn't in conjunction with a bed.  Really, while most yetis slept with whoever they were lovers with at the time, it was not unheard of for others to join them, and Abbey had never heard of "orgies" before Lakshya, so she was sure that those piles were platonic and that sex was always between two, or in rare instances and in private conference, three.

Well, the three thing Abbey wasn't sure carried over to Abominable's tribe, but she was sure the sleeping in piles of yetis did even if they did sleep at night. 

While Abbey was thinking, Jinafire busied herself getting ready for a day of shopping.  When she came out of the bathroom and noticed the yeti still in bed, she threw her brush gently at the yeti.  Abbey caught it without thinking, looked down at it, and then looked at the dragon in confusion.  Jinafire laughed and urged Abbey to get ready so they wouldn't be late for breakfast with the whole gang. 

It didn't take Abbey long.  Part of the trip today was going in the afternoon to a shop that catered to monsters and specialized in helping said monsters pick out the "right" type of makeup that not complimented their unique coloring and features, but also what type of makeup was best for their type of skin.  So Abbey just ghosted on a little mascara and lip gloss and even stopped herself from throwing her hair up into a bun or braiding it per her friends orders. 

Oddly enough, as they left the apartment, Abbey found herself excited about the day.  It was just clothes.  Abbey found the fact that she was getting more and more excited about her appearance.  She had been experimenting with it so often these last few months with her looks, but her clothes had never been something that really concerned her before.  Yeah, hair for the most part, and even a little makeup.  But obsessing over how you looked just wasn't what yetis did, well, hair was apparently a big thing at Abominable's tribe.  That didn't mean anything.  And yet, Abbey looked forward to determining her own style.  Maybe she could make it like her new tribe's  despite that it had to fit some ridiculous designers rules about what she could wear as a teenage girl.  In some ways Abbey couldn't help but wonder if her style would be subverted in the same way being a warrior in a tribe with an emphasis on being a whole instead of an individual. 

Breakfast was nice.  Abbey spent what was probably a socially unacceptable amount of time staring at them, but so did Karuna.  There was one with bright scales and a snake tongue.  Another with eyes on her hands, and still another with six arms.  Karuna looked like he was making lists in his about everything he was seeing and hearing.  He really was a natural scholar. 

In the end they walked away, waving as they left.  Karuan promised to see Abbey that night, and Abbey followed Jinafire into the monster part of the city, and suddenly the color was almost too much to bare.  It was amazing.  Abbey was used to white, to the simple village life, even the human side of the city had been drab.  The monster side of town was completely different.  Gone was the bland grey mixed with gold.  Now everything was a garish purple, the stones themselves seeming to drenched in color.  Pink also littered the city, highlighting the way gold did with the humans along with fragrant caresses of blue.   It was rather beautiful, if a little on the dark side.

Jinafire led her to what was apparently one of her favorite clothing stores that was in Abbey's budget.  After she chased away one of the stores "helpers", muttering about it being a pain they couldn't keep help, they got down to picking Abbey's outfit. 

At first Jinafire just wanted to experiment.  She pulled outfit after outfit off the wall, and then harassed the helper she'd scared away for not saving them a changing room. The first outfits were completely of Jinafire's own desires.  Jinafire had made Abbey promise to just try on what she made at first, and if nothing clicked, then Abbey would be able to make her suggestions.  Mostly, this was just about getting Abbey into different styles so she could at least briefly see and feel what they looked like so she had a better understanding of all the choices she had to go on. 

Really, the entire thing is confusing to Abbey who thought she had it under control after the whole Indu introducing her to fashion and makeup.  But Indu introduced Abbey to those things in manageable waves, and this is anything but manageable.  Jinfire not only talks about how the colors look together and the styles, but she also talked about what type of monster she was and apparently rules around that, and even talked about the seasons for some unknown reason.

That and Jinafires seemed drawn to clothing that was very elegant but too restricting.  They tended to be almost scaly looking, be dresses, and go almost down to her feet.  Abbey just couldn't see what use clothing like this could be.  Not that all girl clothing was horrible.  Some of it was quite inventive, though Abbey was sure that guys weren't that restrictive.  When she made that claim to Jinafire, the dragon then told her how guys had pants that practically hung at their ankles.  Now that sounded horrible, perhaps Abbey just had to find the right fashion. 

Finally Abbey was asked for her opinion.  Abbey was tempted to ask for some of the pants again, but no matter what she wore, none of them had been comfortable.

"Are there any dresses that are like my tunic?" Abbey asked.  Not remembering anything like that, but it hadn't been like she had tried on the whole store.

"That's not really in fashion right now," said Jinafire slowly. "Perhaps we'd be able to find a skirt that short.  Those are in style."

Abbey pursed her lips.  She hadn't liked the way they had rested on her hips when she tried them on. 

"Actually," said a soft voice.  The monster who had been shooed away his behind a display at the thought.  However, she peaked out again when Jinafire didn't attack her. "Would you like me go get it."

"Wait," said Jinafire.  The salesclerk froze in place.  Jinafire just sighed. "She only has breast bands.  You wouldn't have a section on underwear I haven't seen before have you?"

"No, but I can direct you in the right direction.  And, no offense," said the monster, looking sheepishly in Abbey's direction, "but she doesn't look very... robust."

"I'm an A," said Abbey proudly.  Jinafire smacked her hand onto her face.  Abbey wondered if there was something wrong with her new friend.

"Right, I'll be right back," said the monster with a laugh. She came back fast with three dresses.  Abbey tried on a green one first, but she looked ridiculous, and the dress ended just a bit too short.  Next was a pink monstrosity that had a plunging neckline.  The third was a more "modern look", with triangle patterns in pink, light blue, black, and white.  It had a fur sort of collar that made it rest on her shoulders. 

"Hmm," said Abbey, looking at the dress.  It was odd, but despite the weird shoulders, it was the right length hanging at mid thigh, and the shoulder thing wasn't that bad, it hugged well enough and really wasn't restricting. "If only I had leggings."

"Come on Abbey, let's see it!" shouted Jinafire.  Abbey stepped out of the changing room and Jinafire clapped in delight. "Yes, yes, we are finally getting somewhere.  But, I think we need some fur cuffs and headband."

"A tank too, maybe light blue to go with her skin," said the salesclerk.

"Close," said Jinafire, sending a small smile to the salesclerk. "But I think white will be better in the end.  Otherwise the color will blend in with her skin."

"And some leggings!" Abbey called after her.

"Oh, sorry Abbey.  I'm so used to working with models, I sometimes to forget to ask the people I'm dressing up," said Jinafire looking a little sheepish.  Abbey smiled.  She could tell that this dress up thing made Jinafire happy, and while she wasn't finding it as to her taste as she thought it would, she was glad to see that someone was fully enjoying this trip to get her new clothes. "You do like this outfit right?"

"Yes, she chose well.  This feels nice," said Abbey, then noticed the weird look the dragon was giving her. "What is wrong?"

"No, it's nothing really," said Jinafire.  Abbey frowned at her, shifting her weight to her other leg and glaring.  She would rather not the other monster keep her views to herself and have abbey waste her breath. "It's just.  Why did you want a dress so short if you were just going to get leggings?"

"It's the look in my tribe," said Abbey.

"Oh, that's sweet.  You should have told me that from the beginning," said Jinafire.

"But I thought that you wanted me to try every outfit first," Abbey pointed out.  Jinafire just rolled her eyes, but the salesclerk came back.

They quickly got on the arm band on.  The cuffs were made of something called "faux" fur.  Apparently there were groups of weird humans who threw paint on people who wore animal fur.  Abbey didn't understand humans at all, they wasted so much in their attempts trying to be respectful.  Jinafire explained that unless the humans were being purposefully ignorant, then they couldn't mistake Abbey's clothes for real fur.  Abbey thought it was abundantly obviously that it wasn't real fur.  She thought it was a bit of a pity since it would probably feel and look gorgeous, but she understood the practicality of the faux fur.  Beyond keeping silly humans from throwing paint on her, the stuff was much lighter and allowed in more air than the fur would, creating a sort of cool draft to offset the heat caused by wearing them in the first place.

In the end, Abbey had a whole new outfit (about five sets of it) with along with a longer "frillier" version for dances and a bathing suit that made Abbey giggle over. 

Then they went shoe shopping.  That was in some ways ten times better, mostly because while clothing was slightly on the ridiculous side, shoes were even more so.  Even better, there were all kinds to choose from.  First though, Abbey had to steer Jinafire away from the flat shoes.  The dragon was confused at first, Abbey quickly explained that she wanted heels.  Heels, Abbey surmised, were very important, and more importantly they were dangerous.  Females of all kinds had to train themselves not only to balance with them on their feet, but also to cope with the pain of their feet.  Once these shoes were mastered, they became deadly weapons, which was why Abbey wanted to get her feet conditioned to the highest, sharpest heel possible.

"Plus, don't think I haven't noticed every monster that is female wears them," Abbey concluded her argument.  Jinafire just stared at her for a moment, clearly completely blown away by her speech and her way with words.  Finally the dragon seemed to snap to, and raised her hands in surrender.  Finding the perfect heels wasn't even that hard, and when Abbey showed one of the bright salesclerk that bothered them her arm guards, the monster came back in seconds with leg guards that matched exactly, which thrilled Jinafire to no end and she started shooting rapid fire questions at the shoe girl who seemed completely confused and finally had to admit that she knew next to nothing about fashion and that she was only covering for a coworker and usually worked in the sporting section of the store. 

Abbey found this fascinating, and quickly started asking question.  Unfortunately she was stopped short about asking about apparent female monsters that didn't care about their looks by Jinafire who said something about a schedule and if they didn't leave now they were going to be late. 

Next was the Beauty Salon, where Abbey learned that she enjoyed being "pampered".  The entire process was wonderful.  Perhaps it was the attendant she got.  The monster was see through, with big haunting eyes and a light in her chest that glowed and dimmed with her breath.  She was solid enough, and while she started out fairly quiet, she was soon squealing and then brainstorming ways they could wash her hair.  And then the girl smacked her head and sent someone off for a special sort of product that they used on ice spirits and the types. 

Really, Abbey should have known that out of everything that day, getting her hair done would be her favorite part.  Even before she had met humans she'd always had a weakness when it came to her hair.  It turned out that everyone did.  Abbey found herself blushing when not only her attendant, but others including other customers remarked on how beautiful her hair was. 

First thing first, the monster asked how much Abbey wanted cut and if she had a certain hairstyle in mind.  Abbey had a feeling, by the way the monster kept looking sadly at her hair, that the attendant would cry if she asked it to cut it off, so Abbey said to just cut enough off.  The monster cheered and started her work.  Soon she was tisking and scolding Abbey on her grooming habits.  Apparently Abbey had a lot of split ends from not taking proper care of her hair, and the yeti soon learned all about the new products that her attendant had secured for her.  Apparently she was supposed to mix and match what she liked.

The monster also warned her against dyeing her hair, seeing as Abbey's hair already had so many colors in it, the easiest way to show them off would be to find a creative hair style that got the color at the bottom to show on top.  The hairstylist gave Abbey the name of a couple of books along with the name of some magazines that had new hairstyles and the like in them, though she didn't know if the magazines were also in the states.  When Abbey remembered the headband.  The attendant loved it and quickly went on how since it pulled her hair away from her body and showed the darker beautiful colors that were found mainly on the bottom of her hair. 

After that the woman then framed the right side of her face with a thin braid. 

Abbey was then brought to another room where she then had the nails on her hands and feet pampered, and where they got the same problem as before with the water.  Abbey showed that she could move her body through the ice as easy as if it were ice, but they shook their heads, not sure that the stuff they'd put it in would do what it was supposed to. 

The problem was soon eclipsed by the fact that her nails were as hard as rocks.  Abbey had kept them down to the nub with her weapons and teeth.  But apparently biting her nails was unhealthy, and Kshama yelled at her whenever she tried to do it in front of her.  The monster pointed out that Abbey should let them grow out a little more, it wouldn't even be that horrible at long as Abbey didn't let them grow too long.  Abbey agreed.  There were stories that told of yetis growing out their nails to use like claws, but that was mostly when they were barbaric, hardly thinking creatures of mindless fury. 

However, it did not sound as if Monster High welcomed students walking around with weapons.  The Headmaster had said it was alright if they were cultural symbols, things that as part of a clan she was expected to have but beyond that, it was clear she was not comfortable with the idea.  Abbey watched as her nails were done and considered letting her nails grow out.  Not all monster's were made of stone or susceptible to being frozen so perhaps it would be better if she grew out her nails just in case.

Next came the makeup.  When her attendant didn't tell her what she was doing or why she was using that type of makeup or the reason her eyes were pink instead of red lined, Abbey was sure to ask.  By the time they had finished, Abbey not only had tried to memorize the type of makeup but the brand and what the acceptable variations were.  Really, all the rules made her head spin, and Abbey was impressed with how knowledgeable the attendant had been.  She felt a little bad about wasting so much breath, but the monster had assured her it was part of her job.

Jinafire seemed refreshed and bubbly.  The dragon quickly had Abbey in a trench coat, telling the small yeti that she would show her new look at the show.  Abbey realized that it was much later than she thought.  Somehow it was already four thirty and she realized that she was starving.  They hadn't had lunch, and her stomach growled angry at me.  They didn't stop at any restaurants, but Abbey was used to going longer without food.  After all, when sent by herself to survive the mountain, sometimes it took a while to hunt down anything to eat.

Still, when they did make it to Jinafire's place of employment, there were little things to nibble on.  Some, actually a lot, turned out to be a little too spicy for Abbey's taste, but then she found out they had yak meat and she was in heaven.   Abbey was then dragged behind the stage and her makeup was checked up on.  She glanced around at other monster's that were getting ready for the show.  It was a rather jarring to go from seeing how monsters in the area dressed to the seeing them in the more reserved clothing.

Soon the show was beginning, music playing loud and fast.  Abbey wasn't a huge fan of it.  There was just something very grating about the tune and the voice of the singer.  Abbey went out three times to show off her three outfits to the cheers of her friends and the random monsters that had been invited to the show.

"Hey Abbey!" said Indu, pulling Abbey into a hug as the monster finally found her friends after the show. "How are you doing?  I love your new outfits.  They're so bright."

"You probably shouldn't wear them in the village," teased Lakshya.  Abbey rolled her eyes.  Obviously she shouldn't wear her monster outfit in a village where quite a few people were still wary or even angry that she not only stayed in the village, but that she was getting an education.

"How did they treat you?" asked Abbey, trying to ask the most important question.

"Pretty well.  Nilla has been really nice, and most of her friends are really nice and we don't run into too many cultural misunderstandings.  Most of the monster's that apparently disapprove of humans or at least with humans and monsters interacting stayed away or were driven away.  Nilla's eyes glow when she's angry and I swear the very air turned into fire.  I needed some water after that.  Oh, but she's not dangerous.  But anyway.  You should see what monsters wear.  I mean, you've obviously seen some of it, but fashion has always been rather ridiculous, but monsters it turn out are even worse.  They are so bright.  Now I see why you always were a bit heavy with makeup.  Really, you are positively reserved compared to some of the things I've seen."

"Breathe Indu," said Karuna dryly.  Abbey was glad that she didn't have to do it.  The room had too many bodies into it.  It should have been comforting, and in a way it was.  While they weren't sharing life force the way her people did, there was a sharing of energy and life that was comforting.  The only problem was that it wasn't happening with creatures that shared cold.  They shared heat, and despite how nice the shared camaraderie was the uncomfortable feeling of melting even with her necklace making a small snowstorm appear around her.  Lakshya was teasing her by dancing around and eating snow while smiling cheekily at Abbey.

"You had fun today Karuna.  I heard those girl monsters tittering over you," said Indu, bumping the grumpy looking Karuna. 

"They were trying to get me into a dress," said Karuna.

"I thought they said it was common for their kind to wear those clothes," said Lakshya, apparently having fun if that grin was anything to go by. Karuna glared at the guard before turning to Abbey.

"Well, did you see any male monsters with dresses?" asked Karuna, putting his hand on his hips as he confronted her.  Abbey lifted an eyebrow at him and the human blushed and shifted so his stance was less aggressive. 

"No, though they were as bright," said Abbey.  Karuna sent Indu a superior look.  They were then drawn into conversation and Abbey meant too many monsters to keep track.  They made sure Abbey had the name of where she had gotten her clothes because they would wear out faster than with other monsters seeing as it wasn't made specifically for cold monsters.  They said that here there were no stores that weren't custom stores that made sturdy clothes for those that would coat the material in ice daily. 

Abbey didn't have the extra money to spend on getting custom made clothes, though Jinafire told her she'd be more than happy to if she ever did come into the funds.  Plus, Abbey liked her new clothes.  Sure, they would take some getting used to, but part of that was done already since the tunic look was something she had taken from Abominable's tribe. 

Saying goodbye to her friends they made plans on where to meet in the morning.  With a smile and a wave, they parted waves.  Jinafire locked arms as they went back late to their room.

"Aren't you cold?" asked Abbey, not wanting to turn her new friend into a popsicle, but at the same time not wanting to push her away. 

"No, dragons have tough skin, we can survive in the harshest of environments," said Jinafire. "And while you are the first small yeti that we have seen, quite a few of the monsters who are interning with me were working on some designs for yetis.  That's why they had so many ideas for you.  Some of the yetis from one of the other mountains that live further down agreed to be models.  Now that was an interesting shoot."

Abbey smiled and nodded. "But you didn't design?"

"No, but I got to see the end product.  You have a very tactile species," she said.  Abbey looked at her in confusion and Jinafire giggled. "Most monster's, at least here and in Scaris, would not be comfortable with me acting so close so quickly."

"You are not uncomfortable," Abbey pointed out.  The dragon smiled and shook her head.

"No, while some dragons are very aloft in how they act, my kind make a point of making friends and being kind to all.  We also have big families that we are very rough and tumble with."

That night Abbey fell right into bed with Jinafire, rubbing her feet a little.  Those heels really were killers.  Jinafire said that she should take it easy so her feet could get used to the new way she was demanding it now conform.  Jinafire snuggled into her covers with a sleepy goodnight and Abbey spent as much time as she could, while on her back, trying to meditate until she fell into a deep sleep. 

 


	24. To Belong

It didn't take too long at first for Abbey to get herself setup.  Then Indu came in and Abbey left her room after an hour because this might be her home, but she was pretty sure that at the end of the day it was her house and she was allowed to leave it if she wanted to.  Abbey was hesitant to throw the girl out.  Villagers were out and about and might see her.  Of course, she was being silly, if she wanted to she could easily beat any of them, but Abbey had really learned what tension there was between humans and monsters was like.

Abbey had genuinely been surprised.  Sure, she had heard that most of the time monsters and humans kept separate and that attempts at integration were often either complete failures or only met with limited success.  Abbey had thought that was because most had tried integrating within their own society, which while making the most sense, also invited the most tension.  For some it was the simple fact that both humans and monsters had fought the way Abbey and her tribe had against the humans. 

It soon became clear that it was more complicated than that.  For one thing, it turned out that humans hated monsters that had once been human more than any other.  Creatures like werewolves with who could be naturally born were also changed by a bite.  Other monsters like vampires, ghosts, and ghouls who had to begin as humans were hated more than any other type of monster.  Monsters like yetis were almost revered in some ways.  Not that humans wanted to see them more than in passing.  There was an ingrained hatred that stemmed from fear, and that fear didn't come from just humans.  While monsters overall seemed to be happy to be out of the woodwork, actually able to live in a world without it being socially acceptable to hunt down monsters, a lot also thought it was best if monsters and humans stayed to their part of cities and monsters to theirs with as little communication as possible in that sort of situation.

With a shake of her head, Abbey dispelled the thought.  She just needed to concentrate on getting to Monster High.  There she wouldn't meet any humans.  While the school was close to a human village, from the emails Abbey had exchanged with the Headmistress in preparation, it was clear that she would be strongly encouraged to stay on school grounds.

In many ways Abbey was excited to go to the school.  The time in the city had given her just the littlest taste of what the school would be like, at least from a social standpoint.  She would really miss Jinafire.  While the dragon had given Abbey her number, Abbey didn't get very good reception on the mountains, and while the device was a cool bit of tech, it was also absurdly boring, and uninteresting compared to even a computer.  Still, when Abbey left her mountain, it would be a long time before she saw Indu and Lakshya again.  There was a chance the old human would be dead before she finished school, and there was a chance that Abominable would want Abbey to live with the monsters even after high school if she set up a strong enough support base with them.

Then the only human friend she would still see was Karuna, and even he she would only see in passing.

The yeti sighed and idly let her grip tighten and loosen around the shaft of her spear.  She hoped that Karuna wouldn't freak out, the yeti had warned him that she would probably sneak off that night seeing as she didn't start her guard duty until the next night and she was itching for a good hunt.  It was weird, while she had completely enjoyed shopping and hanging out with her new monster friends, the very atmosphere had made her wish more and more for some time to just go and hunt.  When she asked Jinafire about it the dragon had looked at her, a sort of assessing look before she shrugged.  The dragon did not feel compulsion to hunt, but she did have a competitive streak a mile wide and loved the challenge of working against a fellow designer. 

The sky had started to darken, Abbey's eyes easily adjusting to the change, when she finally picked up the trail of a mountain lion.  A knot that had formed in Abbey's chest after so many months of study and standing bored at guard duty eased.  This is what it was about.  She might not be able to outright kill in cold blood without the frenzy of battle freezing her blood, but she could hunt animals. 

The moon filtered through the leaves, soaking in glittering spots on her skin.  She had quickly slipped into more appropriate clothes for hunting before she had left.  Ignoring Indu as she shouted at her.  She had been tempted to wipe the makeup off too, but had paused.  When picking out lipstick, the attendant had been very helpful and tactful about picking out the color and texture.  Abbey admitting in a sort voice that she wanted something that would hide the scars on her mouth.

It was actually refreshing.  Karuna had a stared a bit at first, but within an hour seemed to have completely forgotten the scars.  Where before his eyes would always inevitably be drawn to her mouth and the scars, now they stayed on her eyes and no troubled frown would mysteriously appear.  With the heavy lipstick that hid the scars, it was like they had just disappeared.  Abbey was more than happy to keep her makeup applied.  Plus, the pink eye shadow and the added tracing of eyebrows with a dark purple highlighted the color in her hair. 

The cat appeared to be stalking its prey itself.  Abbey shifted her grip on her spear in her hands as she stalked her prey with careful, gentle steps.  In moments Abbey had overtaken the beast.  It appeared to roared and bucked under Abbey, but in moments it succumbed.  Abbey felt her spear slip through flesh and fur.  With a jagged pull  she had removed it and looked down on her hands. 

Blood smeared against her cheek as Abbey wiped the freezing water from her face.  She looked down.  The hot blood rapidly hardened against her skin.  Her heart pounded in her chest and adrenaline pumped through her body so quick and hard Abbey was afraid she would melt. 

When Abbey returned with the animal thrown over her shoulders, not only Lakshya was waiting for her, but quite a few other guards.  She unloaded her burden, and many of the guards insisted that Abbey bring them along next time.  She let them take the pelts and meat, they might not have been as close as the adoptive family Abbey had allowed into her heart, but they were special to her all the same. 

Abbey smiled as Lakshya complained that he worked with a bunch of idiots who only thought with their muscles.  He accused of Abbey of being the same. 

Time slipped past quickly then.  Abbey's attention was completely taken by her class and guard work.  The summer was hot, but meditating and connecting with friends and yetis really did help her calm down.  She now had even better questions to ask her classmates on the message system.  With just that little exposure to the culture she understood the situation a little better.

Besides that, while some humans still looked down their noses at Abbey, somehow Abbey had become more a part of the community than her friends.  They asked for her help, called her in to do certain jobs.  She held up their truck when it got stuck.  It really was amazing when you thought about it.  Abbey found herself tired.  Practically falling asleep during her class and always during meditation, but it turned out she had years of education and pop culture to catch the up with.  She was assured that while she wouldn't be able to learn it all, especially with only one brief stay in the "civilized world".

Unfortunately that thread became useless as her fellow students then started debating on what made a place civilized or not.  Abbey was reminded how little she actually had learned about the actual world as they talked about politics that none of her readings had pointed her to.  Soon she was directed to current event websites, but that just confused her more.  None o the websites seemed to agree with each other.  All telling the same stories, but with completely different emphasis and opinion put into each one.  It wasn't even that.  Even when Abbey wrote down just the facts, she would learn from another website that it had neglected to give all the facts.  And then there were statistics.  Abbey hated statistics.

And that was just current news.  She also needed to know history, geography, literature, and math.  She was expected to know slang and how to dress and act.  To know social norms and pop culture not just of the states but also the world.  It was a lot to take in, and while Mistress Bloodgood tried to seem reassuring but strict in her beliefs and hopes of what Abbey would achieve at her school. 

It was soon only a month before Abbey left.  Her entire body was tense as she sat and waited for Abominable.  This would be the last time before Abbey left, well at least from an official caravan.  This was the end of summer festival, and the yetis had worked out a contract with the human village over every minor detail in order for the yetis to sell their wares at the festival alongside the humans.  They wouldn't be mixed in with everyone, slightly off to the side, and there would be a special time for the yetis to look over the human wares.

Seth came and sat next to Abbey, a notebook in one hand.  He smiled at Abbey and they spent some time together just meditating.  There were still times that Abbey wondered if she shouldn't abandon the stones.  She really was better at keeping her cold held inside her.  But the necklace was what she used as the focal point, something about the stones just were able to hold her attention.

Suddenly Abbey jumped in shock as Karuna acted like his usual idiotic self and jumped onto the back of a being trained since birth for battle.  While Abbey was used to that sort of treatment as a child from other young, rambunctious yetis, she was also used to them being much bigger and stronger than Karuna and could have killed him simply by going along with the "game".  That was another thing that worried her about going to Monster High.  It sounded as if her time would be spent either on campus or in the monster dominated part of the town around it.  Karuna on the other hand would be staying on the human side in college, and it sounded as if they would both would be kept very busy studying and making connections needed for the people.

Which meant that protecting the human was going to be difficult if not impossible. 

Abominable stepped out from the caravan.  Abbey smiled, and then gasped as three small yetis appeared.  Saulo looked around as the humans who had come to meet the caravan gasped and started to whisper.  The small male yeti was caught by the scruff of his neck by Abominable.  The other two small yetis caught up to him Adhara punching his shoulder and blushing and looking away when she caught some humans eyes when she glanced their way.  Gemma stood next to Abominable, her gaze focused on the spot right before her feet and her mouth moving as she worked through something in her head.

Abominable said his customary greetings to the leader of the human village with Abbey's boss at the humans side and the small yetis becoming their reverent and spiritual selves. 

Finally they were set free to setup and get settled in before the trading and negotiations and then the fair that weekend started.  Saulo ran to Abbey, and Karuna let go of her as the small yeti barreled into her with a tight hug.

"We've missed you so much," said the small yeti, Abbey had the feeling he was trying to squeeze the air out of her, but seeing as Saulo spent most of his time sitting in meditation, his muscles were only slightly stronger than a humans. "But you look much better than right before you left."

"Thanks," said Abbey with a roll of her eyes.  It wasn't like they had known each other very long, but Abbey supposed that they were the ones she remembered best, despite her most of her time spent with the yaks and the dyes.  Perhaps it was because they shared the same uncommon trait of being so small.  It must have been more so for them.  For all they were a part of the tribe, they were very isolated, not looked down on, but treated with a sort of odd reverence and almost fear and pity.

"Hello Abbey," said Adhara softly, reaching out and petting Abbey's hair almost without thought as she was obviously trying to pretend the humans didn't exist.  Abbey sort of wished that she was wearing her school clothes.  She wanted to know what members from her own yeti tribe thought of the way she would dress.  While Abbey was sure that at her old tribe they would have tried to destroy it, and maybe banish it for her.  Abominable's tribe on the other hand had this fascination with human culture that made sense in a backward sort of way. 

Adhara petted Abbey's hair again and glanced over at the humans.  Seth gave a small bow while sitting down and Karuna gave her an exuberant wave.  Adhara blushed and clung and moved right into Abbey's space.

"Hey, are these your friends Abbey?" asked Saulo, not having the same problem as Adhara about meeting the humans.  He looked at them in obvious interest.  Abbey tried to remember if the small yetis had said anything about meeting humans before.  Sure, they had talked about them and asked lots of questions, but they were also sacred, fragile yetis. Stronger than humans, but weaker than their other tribesman.  They held positions of power, but over the spiritual health of the tribe.  They were so important that before now the tribe might have thought it was too much of a risk to take them on a trading trip to the humans, even when they had brought them along to the fight against Abbey's old tribe.

"Yes, of course," said Abbey, realizing that she had spaced for a second. "Sorry, my mind wandered like old Icemaid's when she watched the yaks."

The two small yetis looked at her in confusion and Indu blew a raspberry behind Abbey's back making the small yeti smile.

"I'm Indu," said the human imperiously as she held her hands together and bowed her head quickly.

"I'm Karuna," said the enthusiastic teen, mimicking Indu's quick greeting before he leaned in and tried to get a better look at Adhara.  The small yeti blushed before she moved to hide behind Abbey and away from Karuna. 

"I'm Lakshya," the human tried to make his voice quiet because Adhara had her back to him now.  It didn't help, the small yeti still jumped at the noise, turning to the human with wide red eyes.  Miraculously, instead of freaking out, like Abbey thought she would, the yeti only cocked her head to one side.

"You're wearing the same clothes Abbey was wearing when she came to us," said Adhara taking a small step toward the human.  Abbey looked over at Lakshya and had to wonder why the human was wearing his uniform.  Had he not gotten the night off?  Then what was he doing up already, and why wouldn't he wear more comfortable clothing before he started his shift?

She looked down at what she was wearing.  Simple clothing, in the fashion she had taken after she returned to the human village.  So it looked a little like what Adhara and Lakshya were wearing with a more human touch to it.  Suddenly she wished she was wearing what she had picked out for high school, makeup heels, the whole ordeal.  Really show them what it meant by going and being an ambassador, get a feel for what they thought of the outfit. 

"Right," she said, feeling like a space cadet again. "Lakshya, Indu, Karuna, these are Adhara and Saulo, two of the small yetis and spiritual leaders of Abominable's tribe."

"Gemma says she'll see you at the dinner tonight," said Saulo, sounding putout and sending a nasty look at where Gemma continued to shadow Abominable as the big yeti talked with Seth. "You're all invited by the way, not just Abbey, but her friends too."

"Really?" asked Karuna, clapping his hands together and dancing on the balls of his feet. "Great, let's go tell Kshama."

"The old healer?" asked Saulo, he actually walked right up to Karuna and got in his face.  Karuna leaned back before his brows furrowed and he forced himself to stand with his head almost touching the yeti. "We were hoping to learn from her.  It turns out the tribe on top of the mountain didn't put much stock in healers, and we have long lost the art ourselves."

Abbey was surprised to hear this.  Partly because while her tribe did not view healing as more important than being a warrior, they still understood the importance of it.  Then again, either they hadn't had any tricks that Abominable's tribe didn't already know, or they hadn't survived the battle.  That was entirely possible. 

They headed out.  While Adhara stuck near to Lakshya she didn't ask any questions and the guard ended up talking in a constant stream to her, while Saulo and Karuna ended up with arms thrown over each others' shoulders as they shot questions in quick succession at each other.  By the time they got to Kshama's house, Abbey found she was almost jealous over how well they got together.  Even Indu had started to make her customary rude remarks, talking to the two yetis without actually talking directly to them and sticking her nose up in the air. 

Kshama quickly took Saulo in to give him an exam.  Of course the small yeti bounced around so much that Kshama looked like she was about to strangle him or tie him down to the bed.  Adhara, smiling faintly, asked if she would be an okay substitute.  Kshama complained, wanting to have time to look over a male yeti, but she finally relented when Saulo admitted that he was not as good at holding the cold close to his heart. 

So as Saulo sat in the corner and continued to bounce questions off Kshama and Karuna without taking a breath.  Adhara giggled as Kshama poked at her, and eventually was able to draw Indu into a conversation about fashion.  Abbey found herself hurrying to her little cottage and getting into her school clothes and then heading back to show her yeti friends what they looked like.  As usual, Saulo reminded Abbey how much she had started to unconsciously follow and believe human gender roles when he was the one who really got into the heels and makeup, loving how it was applied more generously than any of the humans they had gone past.  Adhara asked more questions that contrasted them with humans.  Comparing what type of clothing monster's wore, and what kind of adjustments had to made for monster clothes than humans. 

After they were done, Kshama pushing them all out and telling Indu they would be talking about her findings the next morning.  Indu sighed and rolled her eyes.  Muttering to herself about how yetis seemed to be taking up her life.  They then traveled around showing them everything.  They had some trouble regulating themselves in the computer lab, it probably didn't help that the grumpiest human that worked there was manning the desk at that time.

It turned out they didn't quite go for the same music, which was just silly.  Instead Saulo liked that rock stuff while Indu rolled her eyes at Adhara's choice of classical music, though Lakshya looked like she might be falling in love. 

That night they headed out, Kshama turned them down, blaming it on some random thing that hurt in her old bones.  The humans made sure they were dressed warmly enough, and Adhara asked them all sorts of questions about heat and how important it was.  There was a little confusion when she learned that humans didn't like it too hot.  The only way it was too cold was if there wasn't enough oxygen.  So Adhara could understand why humans couldn't survive in lava, but not why humans couldn't swim in it.  She got even more confused when Karuna explained that if someone could do that, then they would probably be a monster too.

The yetis welcomed the humans with smiles and waves.  Abominable asked that Abbey come to the side.  Seth took over with Gemma showing her friends where they were going.  From a quick look around and Abbey could tell from how everyone was acting that it was clear that Abominable had picked not his best artisans and traders for the jobs, but rather the ones with the most interest and kind feelings toward humans.  While he trusted Abbey with the humans she introduced to the tribe, he had to make sure that the yetis in his tribe needed to form good relations with the humans.  After all, while Abominable probably had a fairly good relationship with humans, the humans did not have such a good training with yetis as a whole.

"So I hear from the Headmistress at your school that you seem to e a great candidate and are top of your class," said Abominable.  Abbey nodded. 

"I am hoping to make friends faster than Pyry," Abbey said. Abominable had this split second where her face did something interesting, before it settled.

"I'm sure they will love you.  I trust that you will be able to setup a firm base with the monsters in that go to school there.  There are many influential families that send their children to that school.  Including some vampires," Abominable said.  Abbey felt something in her shift.  It wasn't quite relief that Abominable wasn't talking about her.  It wasn't dread either.  It was just whatever I felt when I thought back and saw her there, accusing me of the worst thing ever.

Abominable leaned down and brushed at her cheeks.  Abbey was surprised to see ice clinging to his fingers as he brushed them away from her cheek.  Abbey brought her fingers gently across her eyes. "I'm sad."

"You sound confused," said Abominable.  Abbey was. This feeling wasn't quite what she remembered.  She remember the overwhelming disappointment and resignation over what was happening.  She remembered a summer where she didn't even feel as if she could get herself out of her bear skin in the morning.  She remembered the guilt at killing...

"Abbey?" asked a soft voice.  But Abbey couldn't stop crying.  She doubled in on herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her body, as a flash of heat rose in her face making her uncomfortable.  The chokes of sobs caught in her breath and she couldn't even remember half the time what she was crying about.  She would see flashes at time.  Blue blood, a spear, an angry howl.  She would feel ghosts of where her hands were sliced and her lips sewn shut. 

Eventually she calmed down.  She was shaking in heat but cold hands had found their ways under her clothes.  She blushed a little as she careful removed her yeti friends hands from their bodies.  Adhara gave her a small smile before backing away, and Saulo glanced to where the humans probably were, only Gemma seemed to absolutely refused to give Abbey the space she wanted and even glared at Abbey when she tried to get free. 

"Are you alright?" asked Karuna, coming to sit in front of Abbey and taking her hands in his own.  Abbey bit back a sob that made her entire body shake and shiver. 

"I'm not sure what is wrong with me," Abbey admitted, taking his hands tighter in hers and hoping that she didn't give him frostbite.

"What were you thinking about?" asked Karuna.

"I don't know," said Abbey, mostly telling the truth. "I just felt sad all of a sudden.  Like a damn broke."

"Perhaps you need to come to the village for a little bit," said Gemma sounding worried.

"The melancholy can come when you've been gone from your people too long," said Saulo worriedly. "And Abominable did say you're doing well with your classes, I'm sure you could take a week off and come with us to the village.  As the villages spiritual center you can learn to focus your mental health and improve yourself."

"I think that would be wise," said Abominable.  Abbey felt the bottom of her stomach fall and churn.  Then decided there had to be something wrong with her.  Sure, she slept very little, even for a yeti because of nightmares, but it had only been as she got closer to leaving that she started feeling this sadness.  Still, if it was missing her yeti tribe then why didn't it feel like it had during the summer she had been all alone.  Then she had been lethargic.  Now her mind raced so fast she couldn't even catch a thought. 

She didn't want to leave her friends, and she really didn't want to go to Abominable's tribe.

"Why not?" asked Saulo sounding hurt.  Abbey looked up at him and fought down a blush.  Then she sighed, looking up at all the yetis who were looking at her with hurt or confusion.  Only her human friends didn't look surprised by what Abbey had accidently said. 

"Because you let them in," she whispered. "I don't want to see them, and they don't want to see me."

"They are part of your tribe," said Abominable, making Abbey flinch.  She hadn't expected him to be right there.  Why she wasn't sure.

"They are a part that I'm not ready to face," said Abbey softly, looking away.  Then she swallowed and shook her head.  She was a warrior.  She would not stand down, not even from this. "You are my tribe, but my human friends will probably always be a little more important."

There was an uncomfortable silence and the sheer horribleness of what she said sunk into Abbey. She meant it, which meant that if they went against her friends then Abbey would stand by her family.  Because it turned out that to her tribe and her family were two different creatures.  One human, one yeti, and the one she was closest to was the right one.

"That shouldn't be a problem," said Saulo, leaning over and putting his face right next Karuna's, apparently supposed to show Abbey he was safe.  It just made the yeti look uncomfortable instead.

"You're really cold," said Karuna, giggling and pushing Saulo away.

"Perhaps, in the interest of keeping this good relations going with the human we should think of sending a yeti to keep that," said Abominable.  Everyone looked at him in confusion as he ambled off.

"I don't know if that would work," said Abbey. "The humans had a hard enough time accepting me into their village."

Everyone was silent before Gemma brought them food and the topic was changed.  Karuna and Saulo sat right next to her. They talked about things of no consequence, or at least less consequence.  Abbey tuned them out.  Both groups of people seemed to be using too much breath.

The night passed without anymore breakdowns.  Actually, the entire thing went surprisingly well after that.  Then, as the days went on, it only got better.  Well, mostly better. In that there were hiccups that cemented the loyalty and connection between the humans and yetis while isolating the small number of the humans in the village who still opposed yetis in general.  But, really, they brought it on themselves.  The protests against the 'dangerous monstrous yetis had been enough, and they should have backed down after most of the villagers told them to get lost.

Of course, then they went and did something that Abbey guessed was supposed to show their displeasure, but went nowhere in getting follows or anyone sympathetic to them.  They destroyed some of the tents that the yetis set up to sell their wares.  The yetis revealed that they also destroyed one of the works that Abbey had made for them. 

That made a lot of people be extraordinarily kind and sympathetic to Abbey.  They even set up some big canvases that she worked on between meeting with her friends that weekend.  Though, they tended to sit next to her, and they even commented on how at points it was impossible for them to talk together. 

When Abominable left, he commented that they had a while to go before they got a yeti into the village, but negotiations were going well.  He also felt good about how Abbey would do.  Abbey felt better, as her paintings were split between the humans and her tribe she felt more sure than ever that she would do her new tribe proud and her job as ambassador would yield lots of monster allies while she lived in the states.  Maybe she would even meet other cold monsters like yetis. 

 


	25. New Life

Lakshya cried when they got in the train that would take them to the airport.  This was only a good thing because it gave Indu someone to yell at and stopped the girl's own tears.  Abbey was surprised at first when Kshama left with them.  Of course, part of the reason she came seemed to be to drive Karuna and Abbey crazy.  Mostly Karuna because she knew more about what he needed to do to stay in good health.  It became increasingly clear that there were quite a few downfalls to growing older without the support of the environment to lean on.  Kshama was always gripping one of their arms along with her cane, and she appeared to become more and more stooped as they got further from the mountain.

Abbey found herself shaking, just a tingling in her chest that spread up to her shoulders and then down her arms until her fingertips seemed to be vibrating.  She admitted to Karuna that she was nervous.  It was enough of a culture shock going from yeti to human world.  Now she was going to another country to be surrounded by monsters that only loosely had the same cultural values and place in the world. 

It was worse knowing for sure now that Karuna would only be in her life a little.  Abbey looked down at her tickets.  While they had all been able to get tickets for the same train, the airline and taxi service to their schools had to be monster specific.  The airline had manufactured all these "logical" reasons why humans and monsters could not fly the same airplane.  Abbey only rolled her eyes.  Humans and yetis together were a much safer combination than yetis and Fire spirits, but she very well might find herself next to one of those. 

Still, from the conversations she'd been having, it was clear that while monsters were "accepted" in the states, it was in a very specific sort of way.  They had monsters out in the open, learning, running their governments and living in their cities.  But that was just it, many places were either human or monsters, and those that had both in the same town, then separated the lines so there was a clear line between the two types. 

Abbey was also aware that it seemed that monsters were the ones making the most cautious steps toward forming a solid relationship with the humans there.  For whatever reason, whether it was because how monsters were portrayed and they wanted to prove that wrong, or that despite the very many species of monsters there were, there were more humans.  You would think the world wasn't big enough for all of them to fit.

"Hey, Abbey, you worried?" asked Karuna, jarring the yeti from her thoughts.  Abbey was about to deny it when she realized that she had almost crumpled her tickets into pieces and that there appeared to be a small blizzard building above her head.  Abbey took in a deep calming breath, getting her cold back close to her heart.

"Perhaps a little," she admitted.  Karuna smiled kindly at her and gave her hand a squeeze.  Abbey squeezed back, feeling more confident. "I wish that we could fly together.  I feel like a young yeti taken from her family without knowing if I'll ever be back."

"Nonsense," said Indu, even as Karuna's eyes softened in understanding. "You have summer breaks, and even if Abominable wants you to stay through that, you will come back afterwards to reconnect with your tribe and figure you next steps."

"And you have all our emails.  I can even read them now," said Lakshya, faking a proud, self-deprecating smile.

"And you have my number," said Karuna softly.  Abbey forced a smile and nodded.  Her chest tightening despite her friend's reassurance.  Her uneasiness must have shown on her face, because her friends shared a significant look between all of them. "Alright, how about this.  We'll meet next weekend for breakfast.  We don't have to worry then.  College and High School kids aren't known for waking up early, and we shouldn't be completely bogged down by work yet"

"Alright, there's a mall sort of between," asked Abbey.

"But it caters only to monsters," Karuna pointed out.  Abbey bit her tongue before she wasted breath on trying to argue him that it would be best.  While some conversations on the net seemed to believe that Monster High was the closest to the ideal that everyone was always talking about.  They were not only working toward unity between monsters, but also between monsters and humans.  Though they didn't have a very impressive number of human students, practically zero, and Abbey had a feeling that it would resemble the city she had been in before.

"Maybe somewhere more private.  There's a small park that's almost right in the middle of the split," said Karuna.  He showed her where they would meet and also the when.

When they finally reached the train, it took longer than it probably should to say goodbye.  Abbey promised that no matter what she would see her friends again.  She hoped she would be able to keep that promise, but she knew how fickle fate could be, and any of them could be gone.  Kshama was old, her frail body was slowly giving out on her, and who knew if she would last another four or so years.

Checking in wasn't as hard as the horror stories her fellow students or the net made it out to be.  Sure she had to go a screening process of sorts, but it wasn't a metal detector and there was this sort of resigned feeling about the employees as they checked her ticket and passport.  The thing about monsters was that they were dangerous, you couldn't negate their very beings, and some monsters were made of danger.  In the past this had caused some controversy about whether monsters really should be allowed to fly, but thankfully only the most backward of countries had laws against monsters flying over.

She found herself sitting in a crowded area, a little thirsty, but not sure she could control her powers well enough to keep from freezing an atm machine or her card.  She almost wished that she had worn her school clothes.  She had wanted to celebrate her official time in the states and her new life by donning on her new clothes.  Of course, now she felt, what was the saying, a Plain Susie next to all these exotic monsters in their fancy clothing.  Even the guys had awesome outfits. 

Still, now Abbey had no choice.  She only had a thin backpack with a couple of books, a notebook, and some pencils.  It took forever to board once her number was called, and by the end Abbey couldn't help but wonder who had designed this thing.  It was inexcusable, and the first hour or so of Abbey's flight was spent writing and brainstorming ideas on how to improve the system.  The rest was spent in utter boredom.

Really, who would imagine that with so much distraction given to her, Abbey would find herself spending most of her time just staring at that horrible overhead light.  It wasn't that there weren't things to do.  There was her drawing of course, but the flight also provided entertainment.  Like movies.  Abbey wondered if she would ever get why movies were popular.  Music she understood, it reached into your soul and drew out your very emotions. 

Of course they had music to, but it was horrible, and she could only listen to it on human ear buds that no matter how hard Abbey tried, she couldn't help but freeze and destroy.  They had magazines, that were boring and nonsensical.  Abbey couldn't even fall asleep because she was just too tired.  Which was stupid, maybe it was because she couldn't get comfortable. 

Abbey tried to leave as quickly as she could, when the call finally came that they could leave, she ran.  Her feet hardly seemed to hit the ground as she dodged around this monster and that glad beyond reason that she hadn't had to switch flights, or whatever it was called, like it had seemed before. 

The yeti burst out of the airport and hightailed it into the waiting area.  She took a deep breath in, but it wasn't much better than the plane.  There was this smell that made her both jittery and exhausted and Abbey had no idea what it was.  Instead she quickly read the signs that led her out of the overly large airport and toward where her luggage was apparently going to appear. 

Unfortunately that place was still inside the airport, and Abbey was convinced something had to have gone wrong, because it took half an hour for the luggage to start it trek around the baggage claim.  During this time Abbey danced from one foot to the other, looking over her shoulder and taking out of her backpack the picture of Mistress Bloodgood.  The Headmistress had said that she would personally come to pick the yeti up after all.   

In the end she sat on one of the seats and started to draw.  It was of a zombie who was slowly making her way across the floor with her baggage.  Since zombies, of all sorts, were very abundant in the States.  Unfortunately, information on them was jumbled and Abbey hadn't been able to find any "scholarly" books with hard studied facts inside her budget, but the Headmistress had promised they had some suitable books in their library at Monster High and that she would even would take one out for Abbey for the long ride to New Salem. 

The zombie limped slowly, foot dragging step by step.  While even through the rot and decomposition, Abbey could see that the zombie hadn't been born until its twenties, it was obviously an old zombie, at least if it was of the most more reliable monsters who had written in her class.  That meant it was a raised zombie, probably from a graveyard, one that's favorite meal subsisted of brains, and that unless given the drop of life (and what that was Abbey couldn't even begin to parse from all the different people who "knew" and rumors) the only way to tell her age was in her decomposition.

"Abbey?" The yeti's head jerk up at the slightly accented voice to look up into a pale face framed in purple.  Dark lips pulled back in a smile as the woman held out her hand.  Abbey looked for a moment before blushing.  Right.  In the states they shook hands.  Abbey forced herself to look into the woman grey blue eyes and take her warm hand in her own cold one. 

"Hello.  Yes I am Abbey.  You are Mistress Bloodgood," said Abbey succinctly, showing she knew the headmistress so the woman wouldn't have to waste breath introducing herself.  Really, it's the least Abbey could do after the blunder of tripping over the hand shaking.  She was supposed to be an ambassador, and already she was fumbling.

"Yes, I...opps!" Abbey blinked and reached out quickly  grab the woman's hand in her grasp. "Right," said the Headmistress's head, blushing. "I really must get a better collar one of these days.  But the car is just that way."

Those grey, blue eyes flickered toward Abbey's left, and Headmistress's body bent, arms reaching out and taking its head from Abbey's cold touch.  Abbey caught the sight of dark red skin rounded around a peak of slightly human blood red bone. 

The small yeti followed the woman, who was a Headless Horseman if she remembered the earlier correspondences.  Abbey really should have looked up about headless horsemen before she came over to the States.  After all, the small yeti would be rooming with this woman for the foreseeable future.  It would be good to know what quirks Abbey should be ready to deal with.  After all, it wasn't a monster's fault if they were naturally dangerous to those around them, but those around them should be ready to defend themselves at any point.  Abbey would expect nothing else of the monster friends to be wary of her control over her ice powers.  The warmer the air is, the more cold her body has to generate to keep her the right temperature, and it is positively sweltering as they make their way into the parking lot to get to the Headmistress's car.

The drive is boring.  Abbey had a slight interest in cars before, only really seeing them in pictures and photos before that day, but the novelty of being in one is worn away in seconds.  First it blasts hot air at her and she freezes her seat. The small yeti was then forced to hastily apologize and try to unfreeze the seat.  The Headmistress waved Abbey's protest away and told Abbey to sit back so she can drive.

Thankfully the air quickly cools to a tolerable level.  Unfortunately the car turned out to be small and cramped.  It was hard to concentrate on the book Abbey had been loaned about zombies.  It was something about being forced to sit with her legs bent and back bent, head pushed forward by a headrest.  It was just the worst feeling to have to go through, and she would apparently be asked to sit like this for two hours. 

Still, Abbey saw that the Headmistress was shivering and she took a deep breath, drawing in a too deep lungful of air, and drew on her warrior training and meditation to force even her body not to show any of its discomfort it felt pinned down in the call vehicle.  Still, Abbey resolved to avoid cars whenever possible. 

Abbey hoped, when they got to the castle that was the Headmistress's house, the woman wouldn't quiz her on what she learned on their ride over.  She blew out a breath of freezing air so she wouldn't freeze her book.  She would have to finish the book that night, seeing as school began the next morning.

"I hope it's not too much to ask you to go to school tomorrow Abbey," said Mistress Bloodgood, coming up behind the yeti and making Abbey almost jump out of her skin.  Not because she hadn't heard the Headmistress coming, but because she wasn't expecting to be touched.  She didn't think that the States were touchy, but perhaps they were more tactile.  That raised Abbey's spirits.  Having constant contact with her friends, even when they were awake, meant that it would keep her nightmares down.

"Of course not. I look forward to learning," said Abbey with a nod of her head.  Of course, getting used to staying awake during the day and asleep at night was not helping her nightmare situation.  It really was too bad that no other yetis were coming to stay with Abbey.  Someone to share the cold with at night really would have been nice.

"Good," said the Headmistress, sharply but not unkindly, gently pushing Abbey forward so they could go into the castle.  The Headmistress led her up and up into her own "wing".  Abbey gasped as she was led inside.  She looked around and found herself gasping at the sheer size and coldness of it.  It almost felt like home after seeing and feeling the hot air of the states. "I look forward to your studies.  I expect you to do your best."

Abbey nodded.  The Headmistress turned to leave and cleared her throat.  The Headmistress turned back. "When is dinner?"

Bloodgood blushed and forced her own cough, looking away from Abbey. "I'm afraid I forgot."

"Please," said Abbey after a few second of silence. "What do you mean?"

"I'm afraid I don't eat.  I feed in other ways and only eat in public when necessary.  It can be a messy process," the Headless Horseman said with a blush turning redder and redder by the second.  Then the woman took a deep breath in, like Abbey did for meditation, and her blush disappeared. "I will add a couple of books on headless horsemen to the list I've created for you to take out of the library."

Abbey nodded her head in thanks.  Then gasped, trying to stop halfway through, though it was hard since the cold air was so sweet on her overly hot lungs.  She made a quick sign to stay and jogged to her bags, pulling her carry on and getting one of the books she meant for the Headmistress.  Really, she had meant to present it as soon as she met the woman, but she had been so distracted she had forgotten completely about it.

"Here.  This is best book about yetis.  My friend wrote," said Abbey, pushing it to the Headmistress.  Seth had said that none of his books had yet been published in the states.  He didn't seem bothered by that and figured it was because the states didn't have yetis. "I have two more for you, but they are in checked luggage."

"Thank you Abbey," said the Headmistress, her tone is formal and her expression stern, but she holds the book tightly to her chest. Abbey smiles, happy that her gift is accepted. "What chapters talk about Abominable's tribe, so I can learn more about you."

"Five and Six specifically, but since he has the most experience with my be, it is mentioned in all," said Abbey, she bit her lips, tasting the cold lipstick on her tongue before sighing.  The Headmistress has been good to her, but from her question it is clear the Headmistress has not learned that Abbey is not originally from Abominable's tribe.  Abbey never mentioned it, and apparently neither had Abominable.  Actually, that made some of Bloodgood's later comments make more sense.  At first Abbey had thought the woman was making it clear that she tolerated no violence despite Abbey's warrior upbringing, but now Abbey was starting to believe it was more that the Headmistress hadn't like fighting and was trying to assure her that Monster High was safe.

That was a little insulting, and it wouldn't be fair for the Headmistress to believe that lie.  While Abbey might be tempted to be seen as a coward over a betrayer by the monster in charge of her, it wouldn't be fair.  Abbey was a trained warrior with the reflexes of one.  That meant that the Headmistress should expect different reactions from her than she would from a yeti raised in a safe and peace preaching community.

"However," said Abbey, forcing the words out of her mouth. "My upbringing is more what you will read in Chapter fifteen and sixteen on conservative top mountain yetis."

"Thank you Abbey," said the Headmistress.  Abbey could not see the Headless Horseman's facial expression, but the words were drawn out, like the Headmistress was thinking hard, or trying to draw more words out of Abbey with her own. "Well, I'll leave you to unpack and settle in."

She left and Abbey let out a sigh of relief.  Not that she was glad her sponsor had gone, but that it had gone so well.  Alright, there were a few awkward moments, and they hadn't talked much, but the Headmistress had never had to ask Abbey to repeat herself because the yeti had used the wrong word or her accent was too thick, and Abbey had never had to ask the Headmistress to repeat herself because she was talking too fast and she couldn't keep up with the language.  Karuna had been right, waiting for those English movies to download really had been worth it, and Fanglish really couldn't be that much different, though the Headmistress's accent had seemed a little sharper than in the movies. 

With that out of the way, Abbey got to unpacking.  She was about halfway through when the Headmistress poked her head back in.

"Excuse the intrusion," said the Headmistress brusquely. "But I couldn't find what your diet might be."

"I eat all food I've tried," said Abbey, not sure if she got the wording right, but when the Headmistress didn't ask for clarification she continued as she took the two other books Seth wrote to the Headmistress. "As long as there's meat."

"Nothing hot right?" asked the Headmistress, bowing he head and making it wobble on her neck as she accepted the books. 

"I can easily freeze it," said Abbey with a shrug.  The Headmistress blinked.

"Very well.  Once I have made the order and get some work done, I'll come back and see to it that you are ready for school in the morning," said the Headmistress.

"Of course.  My uncle Avanche always said that you must prioritize," said Abbey. 

"I will see you then," said the Headmistress and turned on her heels and left.  Abbey watched her leaving for a second.  While she had ridiculously high heels, the ends were very blunt, though perhaps that was because it wasn't practical to have sharp heels while riding a horse. 

Within the hour Abbey had unpacked all her belongings and found homes for them, laid out the outfit she would be wearing by the time the Headmistress returned, and was just setting up the table that had all her makeup and a huge mirror.  The last touch was the picture of her and all her friends, arms slung around each other and smiling widely at the camera.  For a second Abbey couldn't help but stare.  A pang of longing gripped Abbey's heart, and the small yeti found herself reaching up and brushing away the ice that froze to her cheek.

Abbey found herself laughing, tears running faster down her cheek.  In moments she had grabbed the stuffed yeti Lakshya had given to her and was holding it hard to her chest as she stared at the picture.  The yeti's fingers itched to wrap around a pencil and draw the picture in front of her, like that would make this feeling of loneliness and loss easier to deal with.  But no, she needed to set her hobby to the side.  From now on her two main jobs was her studies and making friends.  That meant that she shouldn't waste anymore of her time sketching.  It wouldn't be easy, but after High School Abbey should have made enough friends that she could pick up the hobby once again. 

Plus, if she was feeling melancholy taking her already, that just meant that the small yeti had that much more motivation to make friends and make them fast.  With that in mind, Abbey went to removing the little bit of makeup she had on so she could reapply what she needed once she had her outfit on.  Of course, once she had it all off, she made the mistake of looking right up and catching her reflection in the mirror.  For a moment she looked like she had so long ago, except for those marks of shame.  The scars that weaved themselves through her lips.  Abbey's hands shook as she touched them and then looked down on her hands where the crosses where Bonebreaker had broken her skin.

Her brother, killed by humans, and her father killed by her hands.  Actually, in truth, Abbey didn't know how many of her supposed family she had killed that last battle that she fought on the humans and Abominable's side.  And she would never forget, not really, because around her neck hung her greatest gift, the center of her concentration and what allowed her to be in the hot states without dying of heat exhaustion.  It was the last gift that Abbey had gotten in good faith with her people.  The most precious gift of promise from Pyry her battle sister.

No tears fell from Abbey this time.  The small yeti simply dropped her hand from her moon ice necklace and went to get her school outfit on.

She was just putting on the last touches when the Headmistress knocked on her door and came right in without even waiting for Abbey's call.  Abbey had turned in her chair and when the Headmistress saw Abbey all dressed up her eyebrow rose.

"Very good, you'll fit in with that outfit," said Mistress Bloodgood.  She then dropped an entire stack of papers on Abbey's homework desk.  The next couple of hours was spent filling out paperwork that needed Abbey's personal signature.  The Headmistress also went over school rules, Abbey's school schedule, the extracurricular studies she was expected to attend, a map of the school, and the entire staff and what sort of monster they were.

Abbey's head was spinning by the time Headmistress Bloodgood said goodbye and Abbey nibbled on some of the food that another monster had brought in while they were talking.  Abbey was exhausted, but as she tossed and turned on her bed, she found it impossible to fall asleep. The room was just too big in comparison to what she was used to, the bed to soft and huge.  Images and facts about monsters, the does and don'ts of social gatherings, and everything that Abbey had to remember for the next day circled continuously around Abbey's head. 

Finally the small yeti gave up.  She turned on the lamp next to her bed, settled into her covers, got the book on zombies, and started reading.  She didn't get a wink of sleep that night.  But she was a yeti, not a human.  She really didn't need that much sleep to begin with.  So Abbey put on her clothes, caked on her makeup, got her school bag, and grabbed breakfast on the go. 

Monster High wasn't a long walk from her new house, and on the way she was fascinated by everything around her.  Really, the green, flowers, and general setup of the world around was just so different from her mountain home.  Of course, it was another hot day, and no matter how much Abbey tried to keep the cold inside her at her core, she knew she was trailing snowflakes behind her.  If it got much hotter than she would start her own little blizzard over her head.

It seemed she was arriving along with everyone else, and Abbey tried to ignore how other students of all shapes and colors would give her a wide berth and shiver as she passed.  Abbey assured herself it was just that they were watching to see what she was and getting used to the cold air she generated as she was getting used to their hot climate. 

The inside of the school was impressive, though Abbey had to wonder if the Headmistress had been part of the planning committee when designing it because there was a lot of purple. 

"Hey new girl!" a voice cracked.  Abbey felt her heart beat a little faster.  They had to be calling to her!  Someone wanted to meet her!  But she schooled her features.  If she came off as too eager, that could turn people off from wanting to be her friend.  Which seemed silly to Abbey, but everyone had assured her that was the case.  Some sort of new kid rule or something.

Then of course a blast of hot air hit Abbey and a boy with flaming hair took her books from her.  Abbey let go, not willing to get so close to another source of such excruciating heat.  Why had he been the one to approach her?  He was obviously a fire spirit.  They would get along like mountain giants and yaks.

"Carry your books for your baby?" his voice became smooth, and Abbey instantly knew he was teasing her.  Really, calling her baby just because she recoiled from his heat?  Of course she was going to do so.  As revenge, she made sure to will a little extra coldness in her hands as she went to take back her books.

"My name not is Baby.  It is Abbey," she said, a little sharper than she meant.  When she took her book back she turned the poor fire spirit into an icicle.  She felt a little bad, but he had asked for it. 

Anyway, now probably wasn't the time to make friends.  Abbey wanted to make sure that she got there in time and was not late on her first day.  She could start making friends before class, at the worst, she would have to wait until lunch or her after school activity. 

As she settled into class, Abbey made sure to set up everything just so.  She hadn't realized how worried she was.  Apparently the combination of being overheated and nerves had started its own blizzard and already Abbey was making the floor around her slick with snow. 

Of course, she realized that she didn't remember the name of the teacher.  Abbey was about to go for her syllabus as the teacher came in and didn't write his name on the board when a rough looking monster with a cat face and many piercings leaned over her snow pile and placed a hand on Abbey's desk.

"Hey, new girl, our seats," hissed the cat.  Abbey hardly glanced at her.  The other monster hadn't even been polite enough to ask Abbey her name.

"I stay," the small yeti said.  Eyes flickering back to the board as the teacher wrote.

"Do you know who I am?" the cat demanded.  Abbey lost her temper than.  Why did the first students who talked to her have to be such jerks?  Obviously Abbey didn't know who she was, she was new.  And the cat didn't know who Abbey was.  The cat might like to think she was tough.  But she was a waif of thing with all the show of a tough girl without any of the stance.

"Mean girl with sandpaper tongue?" Abbey demanded of the cat, letting her know that she wouldn't be pushed around.  The cat gasped.  A very weak sort of sound, not challenging at all.  not someone worth Abbey's attention to try and fight.

The teacher turned around then and directed everyone to sit down.  Abbey guessed that classed were finally about to begin. Still without introducing himself, the teacher instructed them to open their books.  Abbey started, only half listening to the lecture since he was saying word for word what was written in the book when a snowball hit her on the side of her head.  Abbey instantly was excited, seeing the goul who had thrown it lowering her arm.  She could easily read what she had missed in the lecture, and a snowball fight was a good way to start a friendship.  Abbey knew snowball fights.

"You want game?" Abbey asked softly enough to not catch the teacher's attention. "I give you game."

Yes, this was beginning of a beautiful friendship. Abbey was certain of it. 


End file.
